Home/Common Mistakes/Grammar/Numbers/Numbers as adjectives
Home/Common Mistakes/Grammar/Numbers/Numbers as adjectives

Numbers as adjectives

When a number is an adjective there is no -s.

  • A two-litres bottle of wine.
  • A two-litre bottle of wine.

Don’t forget we add hyphens to multiple word adjectives that go before the noun.

  • I have a 500-year-old tree.
    (Tree is the noun, 500-year-old is the multiple word adjective that describes it.)
  • My ten-year-old daughter.

When the adjective comes after the noun, we use an -s, if it is more than one, but no hyphens.

  • A wine bottle which can hold one litre.
    (Only one so no -s.)
  • My tree is 500 years old.
    (More than one so add an -s.)
  • My daughter is ten years old.