Plural of Compound Adjectives. Plural Rules of Compound Adjectives

Adjectives can suffer inflection (variation) in gender, number and degree. When the adjective is simple (consisting of one word), there is no problem. However, when the adjective is composed, that is, when it is formed by more than one word, doubts often arise.

If someone buys an avocado green shirt, he can tell his friends without a problem. However, if you decide to give someone a gift and therefore buy two shirts, doubts may arise. And now? Are the shirts avocado green, avocado green, avocado green or avocado green?

To inflect the compound adjective, it is necessary to analyze the grammatical class of the last element. If this is an adjective, it should be inflected.In order not to make a mistake, it is important to remove the word and place it in another context. For example:

In the excerpt "The light blue dress is mine", the compound adjective is light blue, right? So, we need to analyze the grammar class of the second element, in this case, clear. The question to ask is: If we put it in another situation, what will its part of speech be? Follow: eyes

clear, dress clear. The function of the highlighted word is that of an adjective, isn't it? Therefore, the plural of the example sentence is: The pale blue dresses.Note that if the second element is an adjective, only it will be inflected.

In the case of the avocado green shirt, what can you do to find out what the plural will look like? The procedure is the same, detecting the grammar class of the second element (avocado). Putting it in another statement, for example: Avocado is tasty. You can see that avocado is a noun. When the second element is a noun, there is no variation for any of the elements.. So the shirts are avocado green.

Reviewing:

1. If the second element is an adjective, there will be inflection. Ex. North American Artists.
2. If the second element is a noun, it will not be inflected. Passion-red nail polish.

Heads up:

• Compound adjectives that don't inflect: navy and azure blue;
• The compound adjectives that are formed by the word color + de + noun, even if the word color is hidden;

Ex.:

Pink.

Wine blouse (wine blouse).

• The compound adjective deaf-mute escapes the inflection rule, as both go to the plural, therefore, “The deaf-mute”.