Grammar question - numbers - adjectives or pronouns?

[mamapjama]

I was taught that numbers, such as three, are adjectives. I ate three cookies.

 

I was going through a grammar book with my son yesterday and in the pronoun chapter it stated that numbers were pronouns.

 

Really? Which is correct?

[DragonFaerie]

According to this, numbers are quantifiers, even when the adjectives they describe are omitted from the sentence.

[DragonFaerie]

One more: http://www.english4today.com/englishgrammar/grammar/Determiners10.cfm

[go_go_gadget]

Pronouns? Numbers are words used in the place of nouns? How bizarre. I can more easily understand thinking of them as adjectives, and I think that would be true for cardinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.), but as a student of mathematics, it seems to me that ordinal numbers (one, two, three, etc.) can't be classified as specific parts of speech because their exact state of being is still being debated. I tend to think of numbers as ideas, which would make them nouns, but much more learned people than I have more extensive opinions on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_mathematics .

 

Certainly numerals (the actual graphical representations 1, 2, 3, etc.) ought to be considered nouns.

 

Ah, Merriam-Webster agrees with me in considering numbers nouns: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/number. Every other dictionary I've checked does, as well.

[The Governess]

R&S English grade 3 teaches that they function as adjectives when they answer the question: how many? As in: Two dogs ran down the hill.

 

I'm sure they can function as other parts of speech as well, nouns definitely, but the pronoun reference has me scratching my head!:confused:

[mamapjama]

Thanks! The book I was using was The Basic Grammar Practice Book by Dee C. Konrad and on p. 35 in the Pronouns chapter is says, "The last group of pronouns to be considered includes both the cardinal numbers and the ordinal numbers.

 

Examples: John tried three different entrees, but one was enough for me.

The second is the most outstanding of the entrees.

[boscopup]

Thanks! The book I was using was The Basic Grammar Practice Book by Dee C. Konrad and on p. 35 in the Pronouns chapter is says, "The last group of pronouns to be considered includes both the cardinal numbers and the ordinal numbers.

 

Examples: John tried three different entrees, but one was enough for me.

The second is the most outstanding of the entrees.

 

When you first posted, I thought you were talking about "Three dogs played outside", where "three" is usually considered an adjective (or a quantifier by the linguists ;)). It tells "how many". But in your example, those numbers are being used as the subject, so they would need to either be a noun or a pronoun. I did some googling and finally found someone that actually mentions this, at least in passing:

 

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/index.php?category_id=2&sub_category_id=1&article_id=41

Writers often forget that one is a third-person noun. When they forget this, they use one and you together, even though you is actually a second-person pronoun. There are a few ways to correct this error. See the example below.

 

Incorrect: If one eats too much, you get sick.

Correct (Option 1): If one eats too much, one gets sick.

Correct (Option 2): If one eats too much, he or she gets sick.

Correct (Option 3): If you eat too much, you get sick.

So they call "one" a third-person noun.

 

:lurk5:

[DragonFaerie]

Examples: John tried three different entrees, but one was enough for me.

The second is the most outstanding of the entrees.

 

Something I read said that the number is still an adjective but the noun "entree" is implied rather than stated, perhaps in the way the "you" is implied in a command. In the sentence "Go get your books," the subject is 'you' even though it isn't expressly stated.

[morosophe]

Something I read said that the number is still an adjective but the noun "entree" is implied rather than stated, perhaps in the way the "you" is implied in a command. In the sentence "Go get your books," the subject is 'you' even though it isn't expressly stated.

 

Adjectives have this done to them all the time; I'd agree that it doesn't make them "pronouns." Here are some examples:

 

She got a blue dress and a green one. I like the green better.

("Green" is not a pronoun. Whether "one" is... Well, that's what's up for debate, isn't it?)

 

He argued that the time for finding blame was long past. She countered that it was never too late to do what was right. Neither was a terribly good speaker, but I found the latter more convincing than the former.

("Former" and "latter" are used like this all the time, but they're still clearly adjectives.)

 

"I'd like a tall, please," I told the barista.

(Oh, please.)

 

Now, my argument would be:

 

Numbers can clearly be adjectives: three days, Fourth Avenue, 1,256,093,902 people.

 

Numbers can act as nouns, particularly when they're abstract conceptions, as someone already stated above: I added two and two and got eighty-nine. (Clearly, I need a new calculator--or new fingers.)

 

The number "one" has a long history as a pronoun. "One should always wash one's hands before eating. One should speak politely to persons older than oneself." An alternative--and the one that soon became preferred, except, apparently, among Victorian nursemaids and moralists--was to refer to the unknown person either as "you" (particularly when the sentences were as exhortative as those given) or as "he." More recently, "she" has become the catch-all for the politically correct, though I personally prefer "he." (We women are smart enough to figure out they mean us, too.) Clearly, here, "one" is acting as a third person personal pronoun, when the person isn't known or identified.

 

"One" is still used in such indefinite ways so commonly (I've used it several times in this post alone) that it has made it onto the indefinite pronoun list, alongside such stars as "all" "none," and "each." This is otherwise known, around here, as the list of pronouns that I have trouble remembering are pronouns. (For one thing, many lead a secret life as indefinite adjectives, so why can't they be indefinite nouns? Except that the proper definition of indefinite nouns seems so murky and confused already that I don't want to compound it.)

 

So, "one" seems to have earned itself a place as a pronoun. But "two, three, four..." or "first, second, third, fourth..."? No, I'm just not buying them as pronouns instead of outright nouns or adjectives pressed into service.

[Testimony]

That is soooo crazy!! I have heard it all now.

 

Blessings,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony