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Adjectival Nouns in English:
Because English adjectives are uninflected, it is more difficult to make nouns out of them. One can talk about certain abstract concepts like the True or the Good, but in most cases, at least one added word like "one," "thing," or something like "man," "woman," or "guy" is required to create a noun phrase: "He's an odd one." "Let's drink a cold one" [a beer]. "Have a good one" [a nice day]. "I did the wrong thing." "It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." "I'm talking about the fat guy."
It can be a little easier in the plural: "The rich are different." "For ye have the poor always with you."
Adjectival Nouns in German:
Because German adjective endings carry considerable information about case, gender, and number, the noun that they modify can sometimes seem redundant. When Germans refer to Ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl as der Dicke (the fat man), they don't need a further noun, since the der, followed by the -e ending on dick tells us that we are dealing with a single masculine subject (in the nominative case). So long as the context is clear, all that's needed to make the noun is to capitalize the first letter.
A number of such nouns constructed in this fashion have become conventional enough to be listed as dictionary entries in their own right. Some adjectives that become such nouns are "bekannt" [= acquainted], "angestellt" [= employed, hired], "verwandt" [= related], "erwachsen" [= grown-up], "heilig" [= holy], and "deutsch" [= German]:
| der Dicke | |
| Sie ist eine gute Bekannte von mir. | She is a good acquaintance of mine. |
| Er ist ein Angestellter dieser Firma. | He is an employee of this company. |
| Meine Verwandten sind alle verrückt. | My relatives are all crazy. |
| Nur Erwachsene dürfen diesen Film sehen. | Only adults [grownups] are allowed to see this film. |
| Der Papst hat sie zur Heiligen erklärt. | The Pope declared her a saint. |
| Die Deutschen sind gern pünktlich. | Germans like to be punctual. |
(Note that "German" is the only nationality designated by an adjectival noun.)
Frequent usage has produced other conventions:
| Ich möchte ein Helles. | I'd like a light beer [a pils]. |
| Und ich nehme ein Dunkles. | And I'll have a dark beer. |
| Heute fahren wir ins Blaue. | Today we're driving into the wild, blue yonder. |
| Er traf ins Schwarze. | He hit the bull's-eye. |
| Mein Alter geht mir auf den Wecker. | My old man [my father] gets on my nerves. |
| Meine Alte versteht gar nichts. | My old lady [my mother] doesn't understand anything. |
| Your parents will puke! | |
Plural adjectives of color represent members of particular political parties: e.g., "die Grünen" = the Greens; "die Roten" = SPD or PDS.
The examples above are all in the nominative case, but the adjectival inflections hold true in the accusative, dative, and genitive, as well. Here are examples of "the old man," "the rich woman," "the Good", "the poor [poor people]":
