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Prepositions constitute one of the main parts of speech (word classes) in the English language. English prepositions are not inflected and so cannot be distinguished from other parts of speech according to inflection. Traditional definitions of prepositions, then, have relied on the meanings that the prepositions express. Such definitions take forms such as “any way a bunny can move in relation to a hill” or “any way an airplane can fly in relation to a cloud”. These semantic definitions of prepositions, however, do not account for several words that do not express spatial relations but are nevertheless categorized as prepositions.

As an alternative to categorization systems that rely on semantic characteristics, prepositions have been distinguished from other parts of speech according to their syntactic properties. Distinguishing features of prepositions that have been proposed include the kinds of complements that they take, the kinds of complements that they cannot take, their possible functions in a clause, and the kinds of words that can modify them.

Morphology

Given that English prepositions do not inflect, discussion of their morphology is limited to word formation. English prepositions are formed through both derivation and compounding. In terms of derivation, English prepositions have been formed from the prefixes a- and be-. This a- prefix originally contributed the meaning "on" or "onto" but is no longer productive; that is, it is no longer used to form new words. The preposition aboard, for example, can be paraphrased as "on board of". The be- prefix originally meant "about" but, in prepositions, came to mean something closer to "at" or "near". For example, one sense of the preposition before means "at or near the front". Though the be- prefix is still productive in forming words of certain parts of speech, it is no longer used to form new prepositions.

English prepositions are also formed through compounding. Often, the bases of compound prepositions are both prepositions. Compound prepositions of this kind include into, onto, throughout, upon, within, and without. Compound prepositions have also been formed from prepositions and nouns. Compound prepositions of this kind include some transitive prepositions, such as alongside, inside, and outside, but they are typically intransitive, such as downhill, downstage, downstairs, and downstream.

Despite lacking an inflectional system of their own, English prepositions occasionally carry inflectional morphemes associated with other parts of speech, namely verbs and adjectives. For example, some English prepositions derive from non-finite verb forms and still carry the associated inflectional affixes. The prepositions barring, concerning, excepting, excluding, failing, following, including, pending, regarding, respecting, touching, and wanting contain the -ing suffix of present participle verb forms. Similarly, the prepositions given and granted contain, respectively, the -en and -ed suffixes of past participle verb forms. Finally, with the forms nearer and nearest, the preposition near is unusual in that it seems to inflect for comparison, a feature typically limited to adjectives in English.

Syntax

Though traditional definitions of English prepositions limit the complements they can take to noun phrases, prepositions can actually take a variety of complements or no complement at all. Similarly, they can be modified by a variety of word classes.

Complements of prepositions

Traditional grammars of English characterize prepositions as words that take objects in the form of noun phrases. Though the prototypical prepositional phrase consists of a noun phrase complement following a preposition, prepositions can take a wider variety of complements than just noun phrases. English prepositions can also take clauses, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and other prepositional phrases as complements, though they occur less frequently than noun phrase complements.

Noun phrase complements

Prepositions typically take noun phrases as complements. For example, the prepositional phrase on the table consists of the head on and the complement the table, and the prepositional phrase in the area consists of the head in and the complement the area. By analogy with noun phrase complements of verbs, noun phrase complements of prepositions are occasionally called objects in grammars of English.

Like objects of verbs, objects of preposition typically carry accusative case. Thus, we expect to see prepositional phrases like near me and at her rather than near I and at she because me and her are accusative case pronouns while I and she are nominative case pronouns. Indeed, some grammars treat the inability of prepositions to have nominative case pronouns as a defining characteristic of prepositions. An exception to this rule about case seems to occur when the preposition takes a coordinated pair of objects, such as someone and I. In these cases, usage varies, and the pronoun can carry either nominative or accusative case. For example, users of English might say "between you and I" or "between you and me". Though some commentators have called the former "illiterate" and a sign that the English language is deteriorating, nominative case pronouns as part of a coordinated pair of prepositional objects have occurred in respected works of literature and are actually more characteristic of educated varieties of English than of less educated varieties.

Clause complements

Preposition that take a clause as a complement are called conjunctive prepositions or subordinating prepositions. Conjunctive prepositions can take a variety of kinds of clauses as complements. Most often, they take finite clauses as complements. These finite clause complements can be declarative (this happened after Stacy left) or interrogative (they ignored the question of whether it was ethical). They can also be subjunctive clauses (lest there be any doubt). Traditional grammars typically categorize conjunctive prepositions that take finite clause complements as subordinating conjunctions. Linguists such as Geoffrey K. Pullum, however, argue that conjunctive prepositions have more in common with other prepositions than with subordinating conjunctions: Prototypical subordinating conjunctions, such as that, are meaningless on their own, tend to introduce clauses that function as complements, and can often be omitted (compare Ted says that the world is flat and Ted says the world is flat). On the other hand, conjunctive prepositions, such as because, contribute meaning, tend to introduce clauses that function as adjuncts, and cannot be omitted.

Less commonly, conjunctive prepositions take non-finite clauses as complements. These non-finite clause complements include infinitive clauses (we can't agree on how much to charge) and present participle clauses (you can't just put it on without them knowing). These clauses may occur with or without subjects, and subjects that do occur can be in accusative case (without them knowing) or genitive case (without their knowing). Though various usage commentators have called both cases incorrect in such clauses, many writers use both constructions, and the choice of case often depends on the context. For example, the accusative case is more likely when the subject is emphasized, a phrase intervenes between the subject and the verb, or the subject is plural.

Other complements of prepositions

In more limited cases, prepositions can take other kinds of complements. The preposition as can take an adjective phrase complement to form a prepositional phrase that functions as an object complement (you described them as jealous). Prepositions also take adjective phrase complements in certain fixed phrases, such as at last and in brief.

As with adjective phrase complements, prepositions can take adverb phase complements in fixed phrases, such as by far and since when. Further, certain prepositions (namely, before/ere, for, and till/until) can take temporal adverbs (such as later, long, one, and recently) as complements, forming prepositional phrases such as for later, until recently, for once, and before long.

Prepositions can also take prepositional phrases as complements. These prepositional phrases complements can be specified by the preposition or not. In the prepositional phrase apart from Jill, for example, the preposition apart requires that the complement include the preposition from. In the prepositional phrase since before the war, however, the preposition since does not require the preposition before and could have instead been something else, such as since after the war.

Prepositions without complements

A preposition may also take no complement at all. By analogy with transitivity in verbs, a preposition that takes a complement is called a transitive preposition, and one that does not is called an intransitive preposition. Some intransitive prepositions can also be used transitively (that is, with a complement) while others are always intransitive. The preposition above, for example can occur transitively (the tree's branches loomed high above our head) or intransitively (the tree's branches loomed high above). The preposition downstairs, however, can be used intransitively (the children ran downstairs) but not transitively (*the children ran downstairs the house).

Traditional grammars do not allow for prepositions without complements and, thus, lump intransitive prepositions into the category of adverb. However, linguists have argued against the analysis of intransitive prepositions as adverbs since at least the early twentieth century. Otto Jespersen, for example, argues that just as verbs can be either intransitive or transitive (she was eating, she was eating an apple), prepositions can be either intransitive or transitive (she hasn't been seen since, she hasn't been seen since the war). Linguists have also noted that phrases headed by intransitive prepositions have the same distribution (that is, occur in the same places) as prepositional phrases headed by transitive prepositions and that they do not have the same distributions as prototypical adverb phrases.

Modifiers of prepositions

Prepositions may optionally be modified by other phrasal categories. Adverb phrases, noun phrases, and prepositional phrases can function as pre-head modifiers of prepositions (that is, modify prepositions that follow them), and prepositional phases can also function as post-head modifiers (that is, modify prepositions that precede them).

Pre-head modifiers

Adverb phrases can function as pre-head modifiers in prepositional phrases. For example, the prepositional phrase after midnight can be modified by adverb phrases such as shortly (shortly after midnight) or quite obviously (quite obviously after midnight). A subset of adverb phrase modifiers of prepositions express degree and occur within prepositional phrases but not other phrasal categories. These degree adverbs include clear, flat, plumb, right, smack, and straight. Examples of prepositional phrases modified in this way include clear up the tree, straight out the door, and right out of the park.

Noun phrases indicating spatial or temporal extent can occur before a preposition that expresses spatial or temporal meaning in order to modify it. For example, the prepositional phrase beyond the post office can be modified by the noun phrase two miles (two miles beyond the post office) or a few minutes' walk (a few minutes' walk beyond the post office).

Certain prepositions with directional meanings can function as pre-head modifiers in prepositional phrases. The prepositions down, out, over, and up frequently occur in this role. For example, the preposition down can modify the prepositional phrases by the beach (down by the beach) and by the sea (down by the sea). We can tell that these directional prepositions are modifying other proportional phrases rather than taking prepositional phrases as complements because the other preposition determines whether the whole phrase is grammatical. Thus, "I placed it up on the shelf" is grammatical because "I placed it on the shelf" is also grammatical, but "I placed it up to the attic" is not grammatical because "I placed it to the attic" is not grammatical.

Post-head modifiers

Prepositional phrases can also modify prepositions that precede them. In the clause they go out in the cold, for example, the preposition out is modified by the prepositional phrase in the cold. Though it may appear that in the cold could be modifying the verb go rather than the preposition out, movement of the elements to different parts of the clause suggests that in the cold is actually linked with the preposition out: the prepositional phrase in the cold cannot move to the start of the clause by itself (*in the cold they go out) but it can move to the start of the clause as part of the larger prepositional phrase out in the cold (out in the cold they go).

Grammatical function of prepositional phrases

Clause-level functions of prepositional phrases

At the level of the clause, prepositional phrases typically function as adjuncts or complements. Prepositional phrases can also function as subjects, but this is relatively rare.

Prepositional phrases as adjuncts

Prepositional phrases often function as adjuncts in clauses; that is, they are not required clausal elements but rather offer optional, circumstantial information about the when, where, how, or why of the situation. For example, the prepositional phrase on Sundays in the clause I go to church on Sundays offers optional information about when the going occurs; it is optional in that it could be omitted (as in I go to church).

Prepositional phrases and adverb phrases are the most common realization of clause-level adjuncts, and these prepositional phrases can often be used interchangeably with adverb phrases. For example, the prepositional phrase in a happy way in the clause she smiled at me in a happy way conveys the same basic experiential meaning as the adverb phrase happily in she smiled at me happily.

Prepositional phrases that function as clause-level adjuncts are typically mobile, meaning that they can occupy different positions in the clause. In the clause I go to church on Sundays, for example, the prepositional phase can be moved from the clause-final position to the clause-initial position: On Sundays, I go to Church. Though these prepositional phrases are mobile in the clause, there are still limitation on where they can occur. For instance, a prepositional phrase will typically not occupy a position between a verb and its complement. So while we might place the prepositional phrase without asking permission in a variety of places in the clause Lulu rode her sister's bicycle, its placement between rode and her sister's bicycle is of questionable grammaticality: ?Lulu rode without asking permission her sister's bicycle.

Prepositional phrases as complements

Many English verbs license complements that can be filled only by prepositional phrases. Examples of prepositional phrase complements (PPCs) include the following:

• The term never caught on.
• I turned the light off.
• He relied on the forensic evidence.
• He regarded her as a sales promoter.

These examples demonstrate a variety of features about PPCs. First, the verbs that license them can be transitive (as in caught and relied) or intransitive (as in turned and regarded). Second, the prepositions that head these phrases can be transitive (as in on the forensic evidence) or intransitive (as in off). Third, verbs license particular heads of the prepositional phrases; for example, caught licenses on, turned licenses off, and so on. Finally, the PPC cannot become the subject of a passive clause, unlike direct or indirect objects. Thus, we do not expect to see a clause like *on the forensic evidence was relied by him. In some instance, however, the complement of the preposition in a PPC can become the subject of a passive clause, such as in the forensic evidence was relied on.

The PPC off in I turned the light off is called a particle. Particles are always intransitive and can undergo particle shift, moving from its canonical position in the clause to a different position. For example, I turned the light off can become I turned off the light. Note, however, that particle shift cannot occur when the direct object of the verb is a pronoun: *I turned off it.

Prepositional phrases as subject

Prepositions with spatial and temporal meanings can occur as subjects, but these only occur with the verb be and a restricted range of other verbs with relational meanings, such as suffice (to be enough) and suit (to be appropriate for). Possible clauses with this kind of prepositional phrase subject include on Tuesday will be fine and in March suits me. These kinds of prepositional phrases can generally be restructured as noun phrases with the same meaning. For example, the prepositional phrase in March in the clause in March suits me can restructured as the noun phrase the proposal that we meet in March, resulting in the clause the proposal that we meet in March suits me.

Phrase-level functions of prepositional phrases

Below the level of the clause, prepositional phrases have a variety of functions in noun phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and prepositional phrases.

Prepositional phrases within noun phrases

Prepositional phrases can function as determiners, complements, and modifiers in noun phrases. Prepositional phrases that contain a numeral or measure can function as determiners in noun phrases such as up to a million people: [_NP [_PP up to a million] people].

Prepositional phrases can also function as complements in noun phases. In the noun phrase our review of the market, for example, the prepositional phrase of the market is a complement of the noun review. Similarly, in the school's ban on alcohol, the prepositional phrase on alcohol is a complement of ban. In both of these examples, the noun is derived from a verb, and the prepositional phrase complement of the noun corresponds to the direct object of the equivalent clause:

• We reviewed the market = our review of the market
• The school banned alcohol = the school's ban on alcohol

In these cases, the head noun determines the preposition that is used. Review, for example, licenses a prepositional phrase with the head of, which is the most common and "default" head for this kind of prepositional phrase. Other nouns, such as ban, allow prepositional phrases with other specific heads, though of often remains a possible alternative: the school's ban of alcohol.

Prepositional phrases also commonly function as post-head modifiers of noun phrases. Some examples include the following:

• the floor below
• other counties in Europe
• his behavior after his husband left him.

These examples illustrate that these prepositional phrases have a variety of complementation patterns, including taking no complements (below), noun phrase complements (in Europe), and clause complements (after his husband left him). Rarely, prepositional phrases may also function as pre-head modifiers. Generally, such prepositional phrases consist solely of an intransitive head, such as in the noun phrase the downstairs bathroom. When the prepositional phrase includes a complement, the phrase is typically written with hyphens between the words, as in the under-threat service and in-ear headphones.

Prepositional phrases within adjective phrases

Prepositional phrases can function as complements in adjective phrases. For example, the adjective phrase good at chess consist of the adjective good as its head and the prepositional phrase at chess as its complement. Likewise, the adjective phrase distinct from each other contains the adjective distinct and its complement from each other. In these cases, the head adjective determines the preposition that is used: this sense of good licenses prepositional phrases headed by at, and distinct licenses prepositional phrases headed by from. Thus, we would not expect an adjective phrase like *distinct at each other. However, different senses of the same adjective can license different prepositions; for example, another sense of good can license prepositional phrases headed by for, as in good for you.

Prepositional phrases can also function as optional modifiers in adjective phrases. These occur most commonly after the head. Examples of prepositional phrases functioning as post-head head modifiers of adjectives include open on Saturday mornings and cautious to excess. These post-head modifiers occasionally have ambiguous scope, allowing the same prepositional phrase to be interpreted as modifying an adjective phrase or some other part of the clause. For example, the prepositional phrase in they are open on Saturday mornings can be taken to be a modifier of either the adjective phrase or the verb phrase:

• They [_VP are [_AdjP open [_PP on Saturday mornings]]].
• They [_VP are [_AdjP open] [_PP on Saturday mornings]].

More rarely, pre-head prepositional phrases can function as modifiers in adjective phrases, typically qualifying the adjective. Examples of prepositional phrases functioning as pre-head head modifiers of adjectives include by no means clear and to some extent valid.

Prepositional phrases within adverb phrases

Adverbs rarely take complements, but when they do, these complements are almost always prepositional phrases. The adverb separately, for example, can take a prepositional phrase like from the rest of the company as a complement. Similarly, the adverb independently can take a prepositional phrase like of whether we plan immediate action as a complement. These examples demonstrate the range of complements that prepositions with this function can take: noun phrases (separately from the rest of the company) and clauses (independently of whether we plan immediate action). These examples also illustrate the fact that the only adverbs that take prepositional phrase complements are derived from adjectives, as in separately from separate and independently from independent.

Prepositional phrases can also function as post-head modifiers in adverb phrases. Examples of these include the prepositional phrase in the year in the adverb phrase later in the year.

Grammatical functions of noun-phrase-like prepositional phrases

Certain prepositional phrases that contain a numeral or measure (such as over a year or between half and three-quarters of the farm) occur in positions typical of noun phrases rather than those of typical prepositional phrases. Prepositions that head these kinds of prepositional phrases include around, between, close to, over, under, and up to. Subjects, direct objects, and indirect objects are typically realized by noun phrases; thus, these NP-like prepositional phrases can also function as subjects, direct objects, and indirect objects. Examples include the following:

• Subject: Between half and three-quarters of the farm is likely to be grassland.
• Direct object: They spent over a year on this problem.
• Indirect object: He told around fifty people his life story.

Semantics

Linguists and grammarians have proposed a variety of hierarchies for categorizing English prepositions according to their meaning. Two notable systems were outlined in grammars published in 1985: Randolph Quirk et al.'s A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and Michael Halliday's An Introduction to Functional Grammar. More recent systems include Nathan Schneider et al.'s Semantic Network of Adposition and Case Supersenses, which has been in development since 2015.

Comprehensive

Quirk et al. propose seven primary categories of prepositional meaning: spatial relations, time, the cause/purpose spectrum, the means/agentive spectrum, accompaniment, support and opposition, and other.

Functional

Halliday offers two primary categories of prepositional meaning: circumstance and participant. Circumstance meanings are further divided into nine subcategories: extent, location, manner, cause, contingency, accompaniment, role, matter, and angle. [313-314] Participant meanings are divided into three subcategories: agent, beneficiary, and range. [330]

Adposition and case supersenses

Schneider et al. propose three primary categories: circumstance, participant, and configuration. Circumstance meanings are further divided into six subcategories: temporal, locus, path, means, manner, and explanation. Participant meanings are further divided into ten subcategories: causer, theme, ancillary, stimulus, experiencer, originator, recipient, cost, beneficiary, and instrument. Configuration are further divided into eight subcategories: identity, species, gestalt, characteristic, ensemble, comparison reference, rate unit, and social relation.

Semantics, Take 2

The meanings of prepositions can be divided into three broad categories of meaning: those that express circumstances, participants, or configurations. Prepositions that express circumstances prototypically function as adjuncts and answer questions related to where, when, how, and why a thing happens. In the clause we will talk during lunch, for example, the prepositional phrase during lunch indicates when the talking will occur. Prepositions that express participants prototypically function as heads of prepositional phrases that signify entities participating in a process. For example, in the clause the story was told by the elder, the prepositional phrase by the elder indicates that the elder instigated the telling of the story. Finally, prepositions that express configurations prototypically show relationships between two entities or between an entity and a property. In the noun phrase a person of honor, for instance, the entity a person is characterized as having the property honor.

Circumstance

Time

Time prepositions answer questions about when, how long, and how many times something happens. [S9] [H5-28] Prepositions like at, in, and on can express a particular position or location in time, as in at midnight, in January, and on Sunday. [S10] [Q687–688] [H5-28] Some time prepositions convey intervals of time. For example, prepositions like in and ago mark the time elapsed between two points in time, as in the prepositional phrases in a month and a month ago. [S14–15] [Q688] Other time prepositions convey duration. For instance, for and throughout indicate how long something lasts, as in for a month or throughout the day. [S13–14] [Q689] [H5-28]

Location

Location prepositions answer questions about where something happens. Prepositions like at, in, and on can express a particular position or location in space, as in the prepositional phrases at the library, in the room, and on the floor. [S17] [Q675] [H5-28] Some location prepositions convey a thing's source. For example, prepositions like from and off indicate an initial location, as in from the cliff and off the cliff. [S19] [Q679–680] [H5-28] Other location prepositions convey a thing's destination. For instance, prepositions like into and onto indicate a final location, as in the prepositional phrases into the water and onto the floor.[S21] [Q675] [H5-28]

Path

Path prepositions convey the ground covered in the completion of a process. Examples include prepositions like across (as in across the surface) and through (as in through the water). [S22] [Q681–682] Some path prepositions orient the path in relation to the speaker. In the clause the student ran beyond the bus stop, for instance, the preposition beyond implies that the student moved past what is, from the perspective of the speaker, the far side of the bus stop. [Q683] Other path prepositions specify the size or extent of the path. For example, prepositions like for can covey the physical distance covered, as in the clause the student ran for miles. [S25] [H5-28]

Means and manner

Means and manner prepositions answer questions about how something happens or—more specifically—by what means or in what manner, respectively, something happens. Prototypical means prepositions include by and with, as in they responded by laughing and they responded with only a laugh. Prototypical manner prepositions include like and with, as in they spoke like teachers and they spoke with anger. [H5-28] [S26] [Q698–699]

Cause

Cause prepositions answer questions about why something happens. Prepositions like because of offer explanations, as in the baseball game was canceled because of the rain. A subset of cause prepositions specify the purpose. The prototypical preposition of this kind is for, as in I need more money for the book. These purpose prepositions can be paraphrased with infinitive clauses; for example, for the book can be paraphrased as in order to buy the book. [H5-28] [S28] [Q695–696]

Concession

Concession prepositions covey a failure of prevention. That is, prepositions like despite and notwithstanding indicate that something happened even though there was something that might have prevented it from happening, as in the students skipped their class despite/notwithstanding their teacher's best efforts. [H5-28] [Q705–706]

Participant

Agent

Agent prepositions covey a core participant in a process, namely the instigator of that process. The prototypical agent preposition is the sense of by used with the passive voice, as in the story was told by the elder (compare the elder told the story). [H5-36] [S33] [Q700–701]

Matter

Matter prepositions answer questions concerning what something is about. Prepositions like about and on indicate the topic that something pertains to, as in a presentation about/on linguistics. [H5-28] [S37–40] [Q709–710]

Accompanier

Accompanier prepositions answer questions about what something is with. Prepositions like with and without convey an ancillary participant in a process, as in you are coming with us. [H5-28] [S40–43] [Q702]

Recipient

Recipient prepositions signal a participant that receives a thing or message. Prototypical recipient prepositions are for and to, as in he cooked dinner for them or he told a secret to them. [H5-36] [S46–47] Clauses with recipient prepositions can often be paraphrased to include indirect objects. [Q 697] For instance, the examples above can be paraphrased as he cooked them dinner and he told them a secret.

Beneficiary

Beneficiary prepositions signal a participant that is advantaged or disadvantages by a process. [H5-28] [S48] Prepositions like for and against indicate, respectively, support and opposition; for example, the question are you for or against the measure asks whether the addressee supports or opposes the measure. [Q702–703]

Instrument

Instrument prepositions answer questions about how something comes to happen. [Q699] Prepositions like with and by indicate the participant that is used by an agent to achieve a particular result, as in the window was broken with/by a rock. Instrument prepositions are like means prepositions except that means prepositions involve processes, such as laughing (responded by laughing), while instrument prepositions involve things, such as rocks (broken by a rock). [S50–51]

Configuration

Identity

Identity prepositions indicates that something belongs to a particular category.

Nouns versus other lexical categories

Determiners

There is typically little confusion between nouns and determiners, but certain words, namely you and we, share features of both pronouns and determiners in certain constructions, as in we students know the truth. These words resemble pronouns in that they show case contrast (compare us students), a feature that, in Modern English, is typical of pronouns but not determiners. Because they resemble pronouns in this way, Evelyne Delorme and Ray C. Dougherty treat words like us as pronouns in apposition with the noun phrases that follow them, which is an analysis that Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage also follows. Richard Hudson and Mariangela Spinillo also categorize these words as pronouns but do not assume an appositive relationship between the pronoun and the rest of the noun phrase.

However, two other features make these words resemble determiners rather than nouns. First, their phrase-initial position (we students) is typical of determiners (the students). Second, they cannot combine with other determiners (*the we students), which suggests that they fill the same role.[cite] These characteristics have led linguists like Ray Jackendoff and Steven Paul Abney to categorize such uses of we and you as determiners. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language similarly classifies this use of we and you as "an extended, secondary use" in which words that began as pronouns have been reanalyzed as determiners.

Adjectives

Nouns and adjectives can generally be distinguished by their grammatical features: Prototypical nouns can inflect for number while adjectives cannot. Prototypical adjectives can inflect for degree of comparison while nouns cannot. Prototypical nouns head phrases that can function as subject, direct object, and indirect object while prototypical adjectives head phrases that can function as pre-head modifier of nouns and subject-related complement. Prototypical adjectives can be modified by very while nouns cannot. Nouns can head phrases containing determinatives and predeterminatives while adjectives cannot. Nouns functioning as pre-head modifiers of other nouns occur closer to the noun head than adjectives do.

	Nouns	Adjectives
Inflection	number (plural -s)	comparative (-er), superlative (-est)
Typical functions	subject, direct object, indirect object	pre-head modifier of noun, subject-related complement
Typical pre-head modifier	adjective phrase	adverb phrase
Occurrence with determinatives	head phrases containing determinatives	do not head phrases containing determinatives

In noun phrases such as the boy actor, words like boy do not fall neatly into the categories noun or adjective. Boy is more like an adjective than a noun in that it functions as a pre-head modifier of a noun, which is a function prototypically filled by adjective phrases, and in that that it cannot be pluralized in this position (*the boys actor) while nouns typically can be. However, boy is more like a noun than an adjective in that it cannot be modified by very (*the very boy actor) as adjectives typically can be and in that it cannot be separated from the head noun by an adjective (*the boy talented actor). Further, boy is more like a noun in that it cannot occur alone as a subject-related predicative complement (*the actor is boy). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language classifies words like boy as nouns. John Robert Ross similarly classifies it as an "adjectival noun", a noun with some adjectival properties. [cite]

Color terms also exhibit features of both nouns and adjectives. In many cases, the category of these terms can be clearly identified. For example, color terms used as subjects (blue represents hope) or complements (my favorite color is blue) appear to be typical nouns while color terms occurring attributively (the blue light) appear to be typical adjectives.[cite] Similarly, color terms marked as plural (the blues in his paintings) appear to be nouns while those marked as comparative (bluer) or superlative (bluest) appear to be adjectives. However, James D. McCawley notes a case in which color terms appear to have features of nouns and adjectives at the same time: a deep blue necktie. In this case, the modifier of blue is an adjective (deep) rather than an adverb (deeply), which suggests that the color term is a noun. However, its function appears to be the same as the blue in the blue light, which is an adjective. Bas Aarts notes that this apparent dual categorization can be avoided by treating phrases like deep blue as adjective-adjective compounds. [cite]

Phrases like the lucky in the lucky don't need to diet also present challenges. Words like lucky in this case have features typical of a noun; specifically, they appear to head phrases that (1) contain determinatives and (2) have the prototypical functions of noun phrases (such as subject, in this example). However, these words also have features of adjectives. For instance, they can be modified by very (the lucky don't need to diet) and combine with morphemes that can typically attach only to adjectives, such as un- (the unlucky must diet). Complicating matters further, they can take as pre-head modifiers either adjectives (the ostentatious rich) or adverbs (the completely innocent). Aarts argues that phrases like these are best analyzed as noun phrases with an empty element functioning as the head, yielding an analysis like this: [_NP the [_AP completely_Adv innocent_Adj] ∅_N].[cite] The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language offers a similar analysis, calling words like lucky and innocent in these cases "fused modifier-heads".[cite2] In other words, they treat these words as adjectives that have fused with an unexpressed head.

[Utter]

Verbs

Nouns and verbs can typically be distinguished according to their grammatical features: Prototypical nouns can inflect for number while verbs cannot. Verbs take a variety of inflectional endings that nouns cannot, such as the -ing suffix of the present participle form. Nouns typically take prepositional phrases and clauses as complements while verbs typically take noun phrases and clauses as complements. The typical pre-head modifiers of nouns are adjective phrases, but the typical pre-head modifiers of verbs are adverb phrases. Nouns can head phrases containing determinatives and predeterminatives while verbs cannot.

	Nouns	Verbs
Inflection	number (plural -s)	tense (-s, -ed), aspect (-ing)
Typical functions	subject, direct object, indirect object	predicator
Typical complements	prepositional phrase, clause	noun phrase, clause
Typical pre-head modifier	adjective phrase	adverb phrase
Occurrence with determinatives	head phrases containing determinatives	do not head phrases containing determinatives

Certain words derived from nouns, specifically those ending in -ing (such as painting), can share features of both nouns and verbs. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language illustrates the gradience from verbal nouns to verbs in their present participle forms, with the earlier examples behaving more like nouns and the later examples behaving more like verbs:

1. some paintings of Brown’s
2. Brown’s paintings of his daughters
3. The painting of Brown is as skillful as that of Gainsborough.
4. Brown’s deft painting of his daughter is a delight to watch.
5. Brown’s deftly painting his daughter is a delight to watch.
6. I dislike Brown’s painting his daughter
7. I dislike Brown painting his daughter (when she ought to be at school)
8. I watched Brown painting his daughter.
9. Brown deftly painting his daughter is a delight to watch.
10. Painting his daughter, Brown noticed that his hand was shaking.
11. Brown painting his daughter that day, I decided to go for a walk.
12. The man painting the girl is Brown.
13. The silently painting man is Brown.
14. Brown is painting his daughter.

Painting(s) in [1]–[4] are unambiguously nouns. Paintings in [1] and [2] feature the plural -s morpheme associated with nouns and also head phrases containing determinatives (i.e., some and Brown's), a feature also observed in [3]–[5]. Painting in [4] is also modified by an adjective phrase (deft), further suggesting that it is a noun. Meanwhile, painting in [10]–[14] are unambiguously verbs. Of these, all but [13] take post-head noun phrase complements, a feature of verbs but not nouns. While the painting in [13] does not take a noun phrase complement, it is modified by an adverb phrase (silently), a feature typical of verbs that is also present in [5] and [9]. The troublesome cases are the ones represented by the paintings in [5]–[9], which demonstrate features of both nouns and verbs. These are are often called gerunds (though the terminology can vary). The paintings in [5]–[9] are noun-like in that they are the heads of phrases functioning as either subject of direct object. The paintings in [5] and [6] are even more noun-like in that they occur with the determinative Brown's. However, the paintings in [5]–[9] are also verb-like in that they take a post-head noun phrase complement. The painting in [9] is even more verb-like in that it is modified by the adverb phrase deftly.

Linguists have offered a variety of accounts for gerunds. For instance, Geoffrey K. Pullum and James P. Blevins both argue that gerunds are noun phrases with verb phrase heads. Other linguists, such as Richard Hudson, argue that gerunds are both verbs and nouns. Yet others, such as Bas Aarts, argue that the fact that gerunds tend to occur in the same places as noun phrases (as subject, direct object, and so on) is not enough to support that they occur within noun phrases and instead treat them as verbs that happen to be in non-canonical positions.

Plural ending, occurrence with determinatives, modified by adjectives, no post-head NP complement, function (subject, object)

Modified by adverbs, verbal inflection, takes NP complement, can be negated, passivation, insertion of perfect auxiliary

Adverbs

There is typically little confusion between nouns and adverbs because there is no overlap in the inflectional morphology that they take (-s for nouns, -er and -est for adverbs) and they tend to cooccur with different kinds of words (e.g., nouns can head phrases containing determinatives while adverbs cannot). Further, nouns and adverbs tend to head phrases with different prototypical functions: noun phrases typically function as subjects, direct objects, and indirect objects while adverb phrases typically function as adjuncts.[noun]

	Nouns	Adverbs
Inflection	number (plural -s)	comparative (-er), superlative (-est)
Typical functions	subject, direct object, indirect object	adjunct
Occurrence with determinatives	head phrases containing determinatives	do not head phrases containing determinatives

Despite no overlap in the form and distribution of nouns and adverbs, some linguists suggest gradience between a certain class of nouns and adverbs. For example, Barbara M. H. Strang notes that words such as yesterday and today have features of both nouns and adverbs. They are noun like in that they can occupy typical noun phrase positions and head possessive noun phrases (e.g., yesterday's news), but unlike prototypical nouns, they cannot be made plural and do not head phrases contain determinatives. Bas Aarts notes that this argument does not actually assert any adverb-like properties but rather just a lack of certain properties of nouns, suggesting that words like yesterday and today are nouns, albeit less prototypical than some nouns.

Noun Syntax Additions

Order of elements

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language proposes the following rigid order of elements within noun phrases: pre-head external modifiers (peripheral modifiers and predeterminatives), determinatives, pre-head internal modifiers, pre-head complement, head, post-head internal dependents, and post-head external modifiers (emphatic reflexives and focusing modifiers). These elements are present in the example below:

even	all	the	very happy	linguistics	students	at the university	themselves	too
peripheral modifier	predeterminative	determinative	pre-head internal modifier	pre-head complement	head	post-head internal dependent	emphatic reflexive	focusing modifier

These ordering constraints are called rigid because violating them results in an ungrammatical noun phrase. For example, the very happy linguistics students could not become the linguistics very happy students. Other ordering constraints are labile, meaning that they reflect the general order of things but may be violated without producing an ungrammatical phrase. For example, pre-head internal modifiers that indicate age typically occur before those that indicate color (e.g. the new blue tie), but this order can be violated for various reasons without producing an ungrammatical phrase (e.g., The blue new tie is a possible answer to the question Which new tie will you wear?). Pre-head internal modifiers and post-head internal dependents are subject to labile ordering constraints.

Order of pre-head internal modifiers

Much attention has been given to the order of pre-head internal modifiers in both academic and popular writings on grammar. Many proposed orders appeal to semantic categories. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, for example, proposes the following order for residual pre-head modifiers: evaluative (e.g., good, annoying), general property (e.g., big, cruel), age (e.g., new, ancient), color (e.g., black, crimson), provenance (e.g., French, Chinese), manufacture (e.g., cotton, carved), type (e.g., passenger aircraft, men's department). [CITE] Mark Forsyth suggests that adjectives must occur in the following order: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose. These orders are similar to the royal order of adjectives, which offers this order: observation, size, shape, age, color, origin, material, qualifier. The following table summarizes these orders:

Cambridge	evaluative	general property		age	color	provenance	manufacture	type
Royal	opinion	size	shape	age	color	origin	material	qualifier
Forsyth	observation	size	age	shape	color	origin	material	purpose

These ordering constraints correctly predict noun phrases like a beautiful old Italian touring car, in which beautiful is evaluative (or opinion/observation), old an age, Italian an origin (or provenance), and touring a type (or purpose/qualifier). However, Mark Liberman notes that these ordering constraints can lead to incorrect predictions: ugly is an opinion and big a size, but corpus data shows that big ugly is far more common than ugly big. Liberman also notes that these orders fail to account for strong preferences within categories. For example, long and tall are both sizes, but long tall is generally preferred to tall long. [CITE]

Stefanie Wulff summarizes and evaluates a variety of other factors that predict the order of pre-head modifiers. From a phonological perspective, shorter modifiers typically occur before longer ones, other things being equal. For example, the long intelligent book is generally preferred to the intelligent long book. From a semantic perspective, the more inherent qualities of a thing tend to occur closer to the noun. For instance, solid stainless steel is generally preferred to stainless solid steel because the stainlessness of stainless steel is more inherent than the solidness of solid steel. Also from a semantic perspective, modifiers that "are less dependent on comparison are put nearer to the head noun." For example, the redness of a file can be determined without comparing it to another file but the smallness of a file can only be determined by comparison with another file. Thus, a small red file is generally preferable to a red small file. From a pragmatic perspective, modifiers that "are remembered most easily upon the occurrence of the noun" tend to occur closer to the noun. For instance, blonde tends to be more closely associated with hair than nice is, so nice blonde hair is more likely than blonde nice hair. Also from a pragmatic perspective, more frequently used modifiers tend to occur before less frequently used modifiers. For example, big is a more frequently used word than cold, so we would expect a big cold lake rather than a cold big lake.

Some grammars have proposed multiple "zones" for pre-head modifiers. A Compressive Grammar of the English Language, for example, proposes four "premodification zones." The precentral zone is filled by nongradable adjectives, particularly intensifiers such as major and numerous. The central zone consists of the most prototypical adjectives, that is, adjectives that admit intensifiers and comparison and can also appear in predicate position. Within this central zone, evaluative adjectives typical occur fast, and the usual order for the rest is nonderived adjectives, then adjectives derived from verbs, and finally adjectives derived from nouns. The postcentral zone included participles and color terms. The prehead zone includes adjectives denoting provenance, adjectives with the meaning of "relating to (noun)" (such as annual and political), and nouns. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language proposes two zones: early pre-head modifiers and residual pre-head modifiers. Early pre-head modifiers include cardinal and ordinal numbers numerals (e.g., two, second), superlative adjectives (e.g., largest, youngest), and primacy adjectives (e.g., key, primary). Residual pre-head modifiers include all other pre-head internal modifiers. [CITE]

Post-head internal dependents

The category "post-head internal dependents" includes post-head modifiers and complements. Though modifiers tend not to occur between complements and their heads, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language does not characterize this tendency as a rigid ordering constraint because the order is also affected by the weight of the constituent, with lighter dependents typically occurring before heavy dependents. [CITE] In the noun phrase the rumor in the city that Minakshi had decreed that no white woman could live for long within sight of her temple, for example, the modifier in the city separates the head rumor from the complement that Minakshi had decreed that no white woman could live for long within sight of her temple because the complement is relatively heavy while the modifier is relatively light.

Adjective syntax

Complements

English adjectives can take clauses, prepositional phrases, and noun phrases as complements. Clause complements in adjective phrases can be either finite or nonfinite. Finite clause complements can be declarative (e.g., very pleased that I had bought his book) or interrogative (e.g., not sure whether I want to keep reading). Nonfinite clause complements can occur with a subject (e.g., happy for you to prove me wrong) or without a subject (e.g., eager to please). Adjectives that take prepositional phrase complements license prepositional phrases heads by fixed prepositions. For example, dependent takes prepositional phrase complements headed only by on or upon. In some cases, leaving out the prepositional phrase complement results in an ungrammatical statement (as in *that leaves Social Security permanently dependent). A small number of adjectives (due, like, near, unlike, and worth) can take noun phrases as complements. For example, worth can function as the head of an adjective phrase with a noun phrase complement such as a second chance.

Modifiers

The prototypical pre-head modifiers of English adjectives are adverb phrases headed by degree adverbs, such as very and too. For example, the adjective tall can be modified by the adverb phrase very. Less common pre-head modifiers in adjective phrases are noun phrases (e.g., six feet long), prepositional phrases (e.g., by no means realistic), and determiner phrases (e.g., that small).[CITE] The prototypical post-head modifiers of English adjectives are prepositional phrases. In the adjective phrase very early in the morning, for example, the prepositional phrase in the morning modifies the head of the adjective phrase, early. Less commonly, certain adverbs (indeed and still) and one determiner (enough) can head phases that function as post-head modifiers of adjectives.[CITE] These words can be included in adjective phrases like very harmful indeed, sweeter still, and fair enough.

Adjectives vs other lexical categories

Adjectives vs nouns

Typically, adjectives and nouns in English can be distinguished by their morphological and syntactic features: Prototypical adjectives can inflect for degree of comparison (e.g., happy and happier) but cannot inflect for number (e.g., happy but not happys). Conversely, prototypical noun can inflect for number (e.g., mother and mothers) but cannot inflect for degree of comparison (e.g., mother but not motherer or motherest). English adjectives head phrases that typically function as pre-head modifiers of nouns or predicative complements (e.g., those nice folks seem quite capable) while English nouns head phrases that can function as subjects, direct objects, or indirect objects (e.g., Jess told my sister a story). The prototypical pre-head modifiers of adjectives are adverb phrases (e.g., quite capable) while the prototypical pre-head modifiers of nouns are adjective phrases (e.g., those nice folks). Finally, English adjectives, unlike English nouns, cannot function as the head of phrases containing determinatives or predeterminatives.[CITE] The following table summarizes these characteristics:

	Adjectives	Nouns
Inflection	comparative (-er), superlative (-est)	plural (-s)
Typical function	subject, direct object, indirect object	pre-head modifier of noun, predictive complement
Typical pre-head modifier	adverb phrase	adjective phrase
Occurrence with determinatives	do not head phrases containing determinatives	head phrases containing determinatives

The distinction between adjective and noun in English is not as clear in certain cases, such as with color terms and noun-like words occurring in attributive position. In the case of color terms, the category can often be identified without controversy. For instance, color terms used as subjects (e.g., orange is the color of my love) or predicative complements (e.g., my favorite color is orange) are typical nouns while color terms occurring attributively (e.g., the orange flower) are typical adjectives. Similarly, color terms marked as plural (e.g., the reds in the painting) are nouns while those marked as comparative (e.g., redder) or superlative (e.g., reddest) are adjectives. However, the categorization of color terms is less clear in cases like a deep orange hue. In these cases, the modifier of the color term is an adjective (deep) rather than an adverb (deeply), which suggests that it is a noun. But the color term occurs attributively as a pre-head modifier of a noun, which suggests that it is an adjective. Bas Aarts notes that this apparent dual categorization can be avoided by treating terms like deep orange as adjective-adjective compounds.[CITE]

Noun-like words appearing in attributive position, such as history in a history student, also exhibit features of both adjectives and nouns. Words like history in this case are more like adjectives than nouns in that they function as pre-head modifiers of nouns and in that that they cannot be pluralized in this position (*a histories student). However, words like history are more like nouns than adjectives in that it cannot be modified by adverb phrases like very (*a very history students) and in that they cannot occur alone as predicative complements (*the student is history).[CITE]

Gender

Spanish nouns belong to either the masculine or the feminine grammatical gender.[W30][M2.1][R1.1] Gender, in this case, refers to a grammatical system and is not necessarily connected with biological sex or gender.[M2.1] [EXAMPLE] Adjectives and determiners agree in gender with their associated nouns.[M2.1] [EXAMPLE]

The question of whether -o, -a, and similar morphemes are inflectional gender morphemes is a matter of disagreement in grammars of Spanish. For terms like el hijo 'son' and la hija 'daughter', the terms seem to consist of a root like hij- and a suffix -o or-a that determines the noun's gender. But for terms like el escritor 'the (male) writer' and la escritora 'the (female) writer', only the feminine form seems to have an inflectional gender morpheme. Some grammars assume a null gender morpheme for the masculine forms of such terms (e.g., escritor-Ø/escritora) while others argue that such assumptions rely only on theoretical arguments and lack empirical grounds.[N2.3b]

Gender of animate nouns

Though the gender of most Spanish nouns is assigned arbitrarily, the gender of nouns referring to humans and certain animals (a subtype of nouns called animate nouns) are determined by biological sex and gender.[R1.2][N2.1b*] For animate nouns, the masculine and feminine often take different forms. By convention, the masculine form is treated as the lemma (that is, the form listed in dictionaries) and the feminine form as the marked form.[N2.2a] For animate nouns with the masculine form ending in -o, the feminine form typically replaces the -o with -a. For example, el abuelo 'grandfather' becomes la abuela 'grandmother'. Exceptionally, some animate nouns with the masculine form ending in -o lack a distinct feminine form. In these cases, the gender of the noun is marked only by the determiners or adjectives that agree with it. For instance, the feminine form of el soldado 'the (male) soldier' is la soldado 'the (female) soldier', with only the gender of the article (el/la) distinguishing them in this case. For animate nouns with the masculine form ending in -or, -ón, -ín, -és, and -án, the feminine form adds an -a. For example, el doctor 'the (male) doctor' becomes la doctora 'the (female) doctor'.[R1.2]

The remaining animate nouns do not typically have distinct feminine forms, but the gender of the determiners or adjectives that agree with them still correspond to biological sex or gender. For instance, el artista refers to an artist who is male while la artista refers to an artist who is female.[R1.2] These nouns are called common gender nouns.[N2.4a]

For some animate nouns called heteronyms (heterónimos), the masculine and feminine forms are distinct lemmas. Much as English has the distinct lemmas bull and cow, for example, Spanish has the distinct forms el toro 'bull' and la vaca 'cow'. For these nouns, the masculine plural form is typically used for groups containing both male and female members. A group containing both actors (los actores) and actresses (las actrices), for instance, is referred to as los actores 'actors'.[N2.1g] Exceptionally, an animal species may be represented by the female lemma rather than the male (much as the English goose can refer either to the species as a whole or specifically females of the species when contrasted with gander). For example, la vaca can refer to the species 'cattle' or the female of the species 'cow', but el toro refers only to the male of the species 'bull'.[R1.2]

Notably, not all nouns that refer to humans belong to the category of animate nouns; thus, not all nouns that refer to humans take different forms for the masculine and feminine. For example, la persona 'person' is not an animate nouns and is always feminine, regardless of the sex or gender of the person.[R1.2]

Gender of inanimate nouns

The gender of inanimate nouns are arbitrarily assigned. However, some general patterns help to predict the gender of nouns.[M2.3] Notably, the endings of nouns give clues to the their genders. For instance, nouns ending in -o are usually masculine.[R1.3]][M2.3][C9.2.2] The exceptions are la dínamo 'dynamo' (also el dínamo in Latin America), la disco 'disco', la foto 'photo', la líbido 'libido', la magneto 'magneto' (also el magneto), la mano 'hand', la moto 'motorcycle', and la radio 'radio' (also el radio in Latin America). Words ending in -aje, -or, -án, -ambre or a stressed vowel are also typically masculine. The exceptions are la flor 'flower', el hambre 'hunger', la labor 'labor', and la pelambre 'patch of hair' (also el pelambre).[R1.3] Nouns ending in -men or -gen are also often masculine, but there are exceptions, such as la imagen 'image'.[C9.2.6-7][M2.3] Finally, nouns that both end in -ma or -eta and are derived from Greek are typically masculine.[W30]

Many grammars of Spanish suggest that nouns ending in -a are feminine,[M2.3][C9.3.2][W32] but there is no requirement that Spanish nouns ending in -a be feminine.[R1.3] Thus, grammars that pose such a requirement also note several exceptions, such as el alerta 'alert', el bocata 'sandwich', el caza 'figher plane', and many others.[R1.3] More reliable markers of feminine nouns are -ez, -eza, -ción, -ía, -sión, -dad, -tad, -tud, -umbre, -ie, -nza, -cia, -sis, and -itis. The exceptions for -ez are el ajedrez 'chess' and el pez 'fish', and the exceptions for -sis are el análisis 'analysis', el éxtasis 'ecstasy', el apocalipsis 'apocalypse', el paréntesis 'parenthesis', and el énfasis 'emphasis'.[R1.3]

Though the gender of inanimate nouns does not correspond to biological sex, it can mark other kinds of differences. For example, gender marks the difference between a tree (typically masculine) and its fruit (typically feminine). Thus, el almendro and el cerezo refer to 'almond tree' and 'cherry tree', respectively, while la almendra and la cerezo refer to 'almond' and 'cherry', respectively.[N2.3g] In many cases, these patterns with specific nouns can be traced to a common hypernym.[N2.10a] For example, el almendro and el cerezo are masculine because the hypernym el árbol 'tree' is masculine. The following table lists some of these patterns.

Class	Gender	Example	Hyponym	Ref
automobiles	m	un Mercedes	el automóvil	[N2.1c] [R1.3]
cardinal directions	m	el Sur	el punto cardinal	[N2.1b] [W31]
centuries	m	el XV	el siglo	[N2.1b]
colors	m	el azul	el color	[N2.1b] [R1.3]
companies	f	la Mercedes	la empresa	[N2.1c] [R1.3]
days	m	el lunes	el día	[N2.1b] [R1.3] [W31]
fruits	f	la cereza	la fruta	[R1.3]
highways	f	la Nacional IV	la carretera	[N2.1e] [R1.3]
hours	f	las cuatro	las horas	[N2.1b]
islands	f	las Canarias	la isla	[N2.1d] [R1.3]
lakes	m	el Titicaca	el lago	[N2.1d] [R1.3]
languages	m	el ruso	el idioma	[N2.1b]
letters	f	la eme	la letra	[N2.1b] [R1.3]
months	m	el agosto	el mes	[N2.1b] [R1.3] [W31]
motorcycles	f	una Vespa	la motocicleta	[N2.1c]
mountains	m	los Alpes	el monte	[N2.1d] [R1.3] [W31]
numbers	m	el cuatro	el número	[N2.1b] [R1.3] [W31]
oceans	m	el Pacífico	el océano	[N2.1d] [R1.3]
rivers	m	el Amazonas	el río	[N2.1d] [R1.3] [W31]
seas	m	el Cantábrico	el/la mar	[N2.1d] [R1.3] [W31]
sports teams	m	el Peñarol	el equipo	[N2.10i] [R1.3]
trees	m	el cerezo	el árbol	[N2.10a] [R1.3] [W31]
years	m	el 1999	el año	[N2.1b]

The gender of inanimate nouns may also mark distinctions related to size and shape, such as the distinction between el cántaro 'pitcher' and la cántaro 'large pitcher'.[N2.3g]

Some polysemic nouns can be distinguished by their gender. For example, el margen (masculine) means 'margin' while la margen means 'river bank'.[M2.4] Similarly, el cura (masculine) means 'priest' while la cura means 'cure'.[W34]

Like all nouns in Spanish, borrowed nouns must also be masculine or feminine, even when the nouns are borrowed from languages that lack grammatical gender. In these cases, animate nouns behave as expected (taking their gender from the biological sex or gender of the referent), but there are no formal rules that determine the gender of borrowed inanimate nouns. Generally, a borrowed inanimate noun will be feminine if it resembles a more established feminine noun in form or meaning or, less reliably, if it is grammatically feminine in its language of origin. For example, la boutique 'boutique' is a borrowing from French, in which it is also feminine. Further, its meaning is similar to more established Spanish noun la tienda 'shop', which is also feminine. La app 'app (in computing)' is a borrowing from English, which lacks a robust system of grammatical gender. It is generally treated as feminine in Spanish because it is similar in form and meaning to la aplicación 'application', which is also feminine. Borrowed inanimate nouns that do not meet these criteria are typically treated as masculine.[R1.3] For example, el aftershave 'aftershave' cannot inherit a gender from its language of origin (English) and is not sufficiently similar to a more established Spanish noun, so it defaults to masculine.

Variation

The gender of some nouns in Spanish are subject to variation. It is rare that the same speakers use these nouns in both genders without difference in meaning; that is, something about the speaker or the intended meaning leads one gender or the other to be preferred in a particular context.[N2.8b] For example, mar 'sea' is typically masculine but may be feminine for those who work on or near the sea, especially in the context of that work. Similarly, radio 'radio' is feminine for many speakers in Spain but masculine for speakers in many parts of Latin America.[M2.5][N2.4h]

The neuter gender

A neuter gender is traditionally distinguished in Spanish, but no common noun belongs to this gender. Rather, determiners (and, arguably, pronouns) have distinct forms for the neuter.[M2.7]

Number

Spanish has two grammatical numbers: singular and plural.[NG3.1a] The singular form is the lemma while the plural is the marked form.[NG3.1g][NG3.2a]

Whether a noun is singular or plural generally depends on the referent of the noun, with singular nouns typically referring to one being and plural nouns to multiple. In this way, nouns differ from other Spanish words that show number contrast (i.e., adjectives, determiners, and verbs), which vary in number to agree with nouns.[NG3.1a] In the clause aquellos intentos buenos resultaron vanos 'those good attempts were in vain', for example, the head of the noun phrase subject (intentos) gives its number to the other elements in the noun phrase (the determiner aquellos and the adjective buenos). The plural number is also reflected in the form of the verb (the third-person plural resultaron) and the predicative complement (vanos).[NG3.1b]

Adjectives and determiners agree in number with their associated nouns.[M3.2.1] [Example] Two or more singular nouns coordinated via the coordinator y 'and' typically call for the plural form of an adjective.[M3.2.1][NR2.3] [Example] If the adjective precedes coordinated singular nouns, however, that adjective is usually in the singular form.[M3.2.1] [Example]

A noun that ends in an unstressed vowel adds -s to form the plural.[M3.1.1][C10.1.2][NR2.1][NG3.2b] A noun that ends in a consonant (including y) adds -es to form the plural.[M3.1.1][C10.1.3][NR2.1] For nouns that end in -z, the -z changes to -c- when the -es plural morpheme is added.[W36][C10.1.4][NG3.2k] The noun la luz 'light', for example, has the plural form las luces 'lights'.[W36] A noun that ends in a stressed vowel will add -s or -es to form the plural.[M3.1.1] Generally, nouns ending in -á, -é, and -ó add -s to form the plural,[NG3.2c] while nouns ending in -í and -ú often admit both variants to form the plural.[NG3.2e, 3.2i] For example, the noun el tabú 'taboo' has the plural forms los tabúes and los tabúes while el café 'café' has the plural form los cafés'. [M3.1.1] Polysyllabic nouns that end in an -s following an unstressed vowel do not add a plural morpheme while other nouns ending in -s following behave as expected for a noun ending in a consonant, adding -es to form the plural.[W36][M3.1.1][NR2.1][NG3.2ñ] For instance, the noun el jueves 'Thursday' has the plural form los jueves 'Thursdays'.[W37]

The formation of plurals for foreign words borrowed into Spanish do not always follow the same rules as more established Spanish nouns.[M3.1.1][NG3.4a] As a general rule, borrowed words ending in a vowel (stressed or unstressed) will add an -s to the singular to form the plural.[NG3.4d] For example, the plural form of el interviú 'interview' is los interviús 'interviews'.[NG3.4d] English loanwords may keep their English plural forms (e.g., el córner 'corner' and los córners 'corners').[M3.1.1] Many Latin nouns do not change in the plural at all (e.g., el confíteor 'confession' and los confíteor 'confessions')[M3.1.1][NG3.3c] Some Latin nouns ending in -m may simply add -s to form the plural (e.g., el referéndum 'referendum' and los referéndums 'referenda/referendums').[M3.1.1][NG3.3f] Other Latin nouns ending in -m allow either an invariant plural form or a plural form ending in -s. For example, el quórum 'quorum' allows the plural forms los quórum and los quórums.[NG3.3h] Due to the influence of English, some plurals of Latin words in Spanish occasionally occur with the plural marker -a, as in los córpora 'corpora' and los data 'data', but such plural forms are disprefered by some prescriptivists that favor either invariant plurals (e.g., los corpus) or Hispanicized forms (e.g., los datos).[NG3.3j] Some loanwords enter Spanish in their plural forms but are reanalyzed as singular nouns (e.g., the Itallian plurals confeti, espagueti, and ravioli).[NG3.4v] These words then follow the typical morphological rules in Spanish, essentially double marking the plural (e.g., confetis, espaguetis, and raviolis).[NG3.4v]

[Maybe don't include this.] The method of forming the plurals for compound nouns varies according to the components of the compound noun. Compound nouns formed from a verb and a noun follow the typical plural formation rules.[NG3.5c] Compound nouns formed from a noun and adjective follow different plural formation rules depending on whether they are univerbal compounds (consisting of a single orthographic word) or syntagmatic compounds (consisting of multiple orthographic words).[NG3.5e] Univerbal compounds of this type only mark the plural once (e.g., la caradura 'cheeky person' and las caraduras 'cheeky people' but not *las carasduras).[NG3.5e] Syntagmatic compound nouns of this type mark the plural on both the noun and the adjective (e.g., la cara dura 'hard face' and las caras duras 'hard faces' but not las caras dura or las cara duras).[NG3.5e] Despite these differences between univerbal and syntagmatic compunds of this kind, typical plural formation rules are applied to the nouns.[NG3.5g] Compounds nouns that end with -todo tend to remain unchanged in the plural.[NG3.5l] For example, el curalotodo 'cure-all' has the plural form los curalotodo 'cure-alls'.[NG3.5l] In some syntagmatic compounds consisting of two nouns, only the first noun is marked as plural when the second provides determinative information.[NG3.5p] Examples of these compounds include los años luz 'lightyears' and los niños prodigio 'child prodigies'.[NG3.5p]

Some Spanish nouns are always plural.[W37][NR2.2][NG3.8f] Much as the English nouns mathematics and eyeglasses are always plural, the Spanish nouns las matemáticas 'mathematics' and las gafas 'eyeglasses' are always plural.[W37][NR2.2] Some of these nouns do not share their always plural status with their English counterparts.[W37][NR2.2] For example, las vacaciones is rare in the singular form, corresponding to both 'vacation' and 'vacations' in English.[W37][NR2.2] Many of the always plural nouns can be divided into semantic classes.[NG3.8k] For example, many are related to foods (e.g., comestibles 'groceries', espaguetis 'spaghetti'), amounts of money (e.g., emolumentos 'emoluments', finanzas 'finances'), and places (e.g., estribaciones 'foothills', exteriores 'exteriors').[NG3.8k] Other Spanish nouns are always singular.[NG3.8a] Such nouns are often noncountable nouns, such as el caos 'chaos' and la grima 'disgust'.[NG3.8a]

In certain registers, nouns with plural referents can occur in the singular form when the plural is implied elsewhere, such as through the determiners mucho 'many' or tanto 'so many'.[C10.11] For example, a speaker might say mucha foto 'many photos' or tanto soldado 'so many soldiers' while a more formal register would require muchas fotos and tantos soldados, respectively.

While nouns ending in -í often allow either -s or -es to form the plural, more formal registers typically prefer the -es ending, especially in demonyms and the names of ethnic groups. For example, bengali 'Bengali' can take the plural form bengalíes or bengalís, but bengalíes is typically preferred in more formal registers.[3.2f]

In some varieties of Antillean Spanish, an additional -e or -es are added to the more traditional forms of certain plurals. For example, cásase can be found in place of casas 'houses'. Similarly, güisquises can be found in place of güisquis 'whiskies'.[NG3.2b]

Affective suffixes

Suffixes expressing a wide range of affective meanings can be added to Spanish nouns.[C75.1.1][NR43.1][NG9.1a] These affective meanings include size, affection, disapproval, irony, and the like.[C75.1.1][NR43.1][NG9.1a] However, the meanings of nouns derived from these suffixes is not always predictable.[NR43.1] For example, a diminutive form of el coche 'car' is el cochecito 'baby carriage' while the diminutive form of el carro 'car' formed from the same suffix is el carrito 'shopping cart'.[NR43.1]

Some Spanish nouns can take a large number of affective suffixes, creating words with subtle differences in meaning or connotation. For instance, chico 'boy' has the derived forms chicarrón, chicazo, chicoco, chicote, chicuelo, chiquete, chiquilín, chiquillo, chiquitico, chiquito, chiquitín and chiquituco.[NG9.1c]

Affective suffixes are considered derivational rather than inflectional, but they share certain properties with inflectional suffixes.[Ng9.1e] Like inflectional suffixes, affective suffixes are so widespread that words created from them tend not to be included in traditional dictionaries except when the resulting words have drastically different meanings.[C75.1.1][NG9.3a] Also like inflectional suffixes, affective suffixes cannot change the grammatical category of the base word; that is, a noun that takes an affective suffix will always remain a noun after doing so, much as a noun that takes a plural inflectional suffix will remain a noun after doing so.[NG9.1e] But unlike inflectional suffixes, affective suffixes tend to add lexical, rather than grammatical, information to the base.[NG9.1e]

Various sociolinguistic factors affect the use of affective suffixes. For instance, they are generally used more often by speakers of Mexican Spanish than by speakers of European Spanish or Rioplatense Spanish and more often by women than by men.[9.2b][NR43.1][Cite both]

Certain kinds of nouns tend to disallow affective suffixes. Nouns that denote characteristics, qualities, and physical or mental states belong to this category. For example, altura 'height', bondad 'kindness', equilibrio 'equilibrium', and alegría 'joy' generally do not take affective suffixes. Some exceptions exist. For instance, the diminutives dudita and pasioncilla (from duda 'doubt' and pasión 'passion', respectively) are attested.[NG9.2g]

Three classes of affective suffixes are traditionally distinguished: diminutives, augmentatives, and pejoratives. However, the class of pejorative suffixes occasionally intersects with the other two.[NG9.1b]

Diminutive suffixes

While diminutive suffixes can convey a variety of subtle affective meanings (such as endearment, affection, contempt, or disapproval), they typically convey small size.[C75.1.3] The most common diminutive suffix is -ito and its variants -cito and -ecito (as well as their respective feminine forms -ita, -cita, -ecita).[NR43.2][NG9.1j] In Spain, variants of diminutive suffixes with -c- are generally used when added to nouns that have more than one syllable ending in -e, -n, or -r or that have the diphthong ie or ue in their first syllable.[NR43.2] Also in Spain, variants of diminutive suffixes with -ec- are generally used when added to one syllable noun.[NR43.2] Outside of Spain, the variants of the diminutive suffixes that are used do not necessarily follow the same patterns. Spanish speakers in Mexico and Colombia, for instance, typically use the -ito diminutive suffix more often than its variants, regardless of the noun that it is attached to.[C75.1.4] In fact, -ito is more widely used in these areas than in others.[C75.1.4] For example, speakers in Spain typically prefer the unmarked ahora 'now' and pronto 'soon' while speakers in Mexico and Colombia often use ahorita 'now' and prontito 'soon'.[C75.1.4]

In general, the -ito variant is used with nouns ending in unstressed -a or -o. For instance, casa 'house' forms that diminutive casita, and libro 'book' forms the diminutive librito. Exceptionally, in European Spanish, nouns ending in unstressed -a or -o generally takes the -ecito variant when the noun consists of two syllables and the stressed syllable contains the diphthong ⟨ie⟩ or ⟨ue⟩, as in hierbecita (from hierba 'grass') and jueguecito (from juego 'game'). This exception tends not to be observed in the Spanishes of America, where diminutive forms such as hierbita are attested.[NG9.5a] [Ended at 9.5e]

Words ending in an unaccented vowel lose their final vowel when a diminutive suffix like -ito is added (e.g., el armario 'wardrobe' becomes el armarito 'small wardrobe'), but an accented vowel can be preserved, transferring its accent to the i of -ito (e.g., la mamá 'mom' becomes la mamaíta 'mommy').[NR43.2][NG9.4b][both] Diminutive suffixes are not typically added to nouns longer than one syllable ending in -d.[NR43.2] For instance, el césped 'lawn' does not have a diminutive form *el céspedito.[NR43.2]

Generally, the diminutive suffix -ito is added to a noun more often than a noun is modified by chico 'small' or pequeño 'little'. Thus, una casita 'a small house' is generally encountered more often than una casa chica 'a small house'.[C75.1.1]

Diminutive suffixes other than -ito are sometimes characteristics of certain regional varieties. The diminutive suffixes -ico, -iño and -ín, for example, are especially common in Asturias specifically and northwestern Spain more generally.[C75.1.13][NR43.2] The suffix -uco is often used in Cantabria.[NG9.1l] The suffix -illo is especially common as a diminutive in Andalusia and southern Spain more generally.[NR43.2][NG9.1l] In the Spanishes spoken in the Americas, however, -illo often also carries a pejorative connotations.[C75.1.10] The noun hombrecillo, for example, can be glossed as 'insignificant little man'.[C75.1.10] The suffix -ete is often used in Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia.[NG9.1l]

Augmentative suffixes

Augmentative suffixes (such as the most frequently used -on) generally convey large size.[NR43.3][C75.2.1] Compare, for instance, la silla 'chair' and the augmented el sillón 'armchair'.[C75.2.1] Because largeness sometimes carry negative overtones, augmentative suffixes sometimes carry negative associations, such as awkwardness, clumsiness, excess, and unpleasantness.[C75.2.1][NR43.3] For example, an augmented form of la soltera 'bachelorette' is the derogatory la solterona 'spinster'.[C75.2.1]

The augmentative suffix -azo is similar to -on in that it is also often pejorative in addition to augmentative.[C75.2.3] An augmented form of las manos 'hands', for example, is las manazas 'clumsy hands'.[C75.2.3] However, -azo can also imply admiration or greatness.[NR43.3] For instance, an augmented form of el éxito 'sucess' is el exitazo 'great sucess'.[NR43.3] This suffix can also denote "a blow with", as in el cabezazo 'headbutt' and el derechazo 'right-handed punch' from la cabeza 'head' and la derecha 'right', respectively.[C75.2.3]

Augmentative suffixes used less frequently than -on and -azo include -ote and -aco.[NR43.3]