Learn how to use Countable Nouns as Adjectives in today’s blog post. I’ll explain this English grammar using natural examples. This post now includes AUDIO for listening practice!
Correctly use Countable Nouns as Adjectives
In the first sentence the subject (the main noun) is “shirt,” and $60 is an adjective. (Adjectives describe nouns)
If an amount of something, money, years, etc. is used as an adjective, it doesn’t get an S.
“He is a 12 (twelve) year old boy.” (the main subject is boy) not years
“I have a 5 (five) year contract with my company.” (the main subject is contract) not years
“I eat usually lunch at my office because I only have a 45 (forty-five) minute lunch break.” (the main subject is lunch break) not minutes
Dollars, years, hours, minutes are all countable nouns, that means if there is more than 1 dollar or more than 1 year we need to add an S on the end. (I have 5 dollars. He has lived in Toronto for 2 years.)
Remember that in the first example sentence $60 is not a noun, it’s an adjective, the main subject is the noun shirt. If you look at our second example sentence the main noun is the price of the shirt, $60.00 ~ so we say sixty dollars.
Countable Nouns as Adjectives – more examples
“That boy is 12 years old.”
“My contract is 5 years.”
“I usually eat lunch at my office because my lunch break is only 45 minutes.”