Using words like "another" and "some" as nouns

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Scott
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Using words like "another" and "some" as nouns

Post by Scott »

Which of the following sentences grammatically correct:

1- "Some are nice."

2- "Another is a website with interesting information."

3- "The good die young."

4- "Good die young."

Are those complete sentences?
"That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess." - Henry David Thoreau

"Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco." Virgil, The Aeneid
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evraealtana
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Post by evraealtana »

Sentences 1, 2, and 3 are correct; sentence 4 is not.

In sentence 4, using "good" (different from "the good") as a noun refers to public good, or moral/ethical good; it is a singular noun.
- Superman does good.
- Doing good for others makes you feel happy.
- Good is priceless; evil is merely expensive.

Because "good" as a noun is singular, to make sentence 4 correct, you would need to change it to "Good dies young", which would convey a meaning that morally correct actions never last very long. By contrast, "the good" (sentence 3) refers to good people, along the same lines as:
- Be respectful to the elderly.
- A nurse's job is to for the sickly.
- The young are always so full of life.
"The good" is a shortened version of "The good people [in the world]", and so although it looks like "good" is being used as a noun in sentence 3, it is actually an adjective. This is why sentence 3 is correct as written, while sentence 4 is incorrect. You could correct sentence 4 by adding the word "people": "Good people die young."



In sentences 1 and 2, "some" and "another" are used as pronouns, referring to other nouns. In order to verify that they are correct, add back in the antecedents:
1. The store has many colorful dresses on display. Some are nice. Most are tasteless.
2. The document is a list of hyperlinks related to my research topic; I click on a few of them. The first is a web forum, which appears to be inactive. Another is a website with interesting information. Yet another is an article from The New York Times.

Adding the antecedents back in ("many colorful dresses", "hyperlinks") makes the sentences now appear correct, when they would appear questionable if taken out of context.
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Post by sarahmarlowe »

I would say that all are sentences. :shock2:


"Some" and "another" (in the first two sentences) are used here as pronouns.

They are functioning as subjects much like in the sentence "Some like it hot." Independent clauses contain both a subject and a verb and can stand alone. "Some are nice" can stand alone because it has both a subject (some) and a verb (are), and it completes a thought.

"Another is a website with interesting information" is also an independent phrase with "another" as subject and "is" as verb.

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pro ... finite.htm

In the third one, "Only the good die young," "good" is acting as a noun with "die" as the verb. It is also an independent clause.

In the last one, "Good die young," "good" is acting as a collective noun, technically making this a sentence, but it is an awkward phrase that would cause readers to stumble over it and decrease the flow of text. Allowing "good" to be an adjective and adding a noun such as "people" for it to modify would more clearly state the idea. Another idea would be to use "good" as a singular abstract noun and correct " die" to "dies" for proper SVA.
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Post by gen_g »

I agree with evraealtana that sentence 4 is grammatically incorrect and that sentences 1 and 2 are not technically (or strictly?) standalone sentences. As for the latter case, like what evraealtana has mentioned, these sentences require a preceding reference; otherwise, they would not make any sense. I would also recommend incorporating sentences like examples 1 and 2 with their respective references, for better clarity and flow. To be honest, I would not recommend using standalone sentences like examples 1 and 2, especially in professional writing, as I believe that their structures are more suited in conversational dialogue.
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