A noun as an adverb

Dear teacher,


My name is Brian. While writting my stuff, I had a question.

"We continuously walked miles."

=> 'miles' is a noun functions as an adverb in the sentence.

If I want to add information about 'miles', Is it modified by

an adjective or an adverb?



All the best,

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by pdh0224

Dear teacher,


My name is Brian. While writting my stuff, I had a question.

"We continuously walked miles."

=> 'miles' is a noun functions as an adverb in the sentence.

If I want to add information about 'miles', Is it modified by

an adjective or an adverb?

In my opinion "miles" is a noun in that sentence. It functions as the object of "walked". The verb "walk" has a transitive use and this is an example of it taking an object. If you wanted to modify "miles" you would use an adjective. I'm not sure "continuously" adds anything to the sentence, however. :wink:

Originally Posted by MikeNewYork

In my opinion "miles" is a noun in that sentence. It functions as the object of "walked". The verb "walk" has a transitive use and this is an example of it taking an object. If you wanted to modify "miles" you would use an adjective. I'm not sure "continuously" adds anything to the sentence, however. :wink:

I disagree with you. I believe 'miles' is not a noun in the sentence, becuase an objective of 'walk' could be a way , a road , and something like that. That is, we can't walk 'miles'. 'miles' shows us not where they walk but how long they walk. It means it is an adverb.
What do you think?

All the best, :)

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by pdh0224

I disagree with you. I believe 'miles' is not a noun in the sentence, becuase an objective of 'walk' could be a way , a road , and something like that. That is, we can't walk 'miles'. 'miles' shows us not where they walk but how long they walk. It means it is an adverb.
What do you think?

All the best, :)

Hello Brian,

Mike's response make a lot of sense. :D

Try looking at it in this way,

1. We walked (for) miles along the road.
2. We walked along the road for miles.

Where did you walk? Along the road. (Adverb)
What did you walk? Miles (Plural noun, Object)

3. We continuously walked (a great deal of ) miles.

In 3. the phrase 'a great deal of' has been omitted. 'miles' functions as a noun, with or without its modification 'a great deal of'.

All the best,

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by pdh0224

I disagree with you. I believe 'miles' is not a noun in the sentence, becuase an objective of 'walk' could be a way , a road , and something like that. That is, we can't walk 'miles'. 'miles' shows us not where they walk but how long they walk. It means it is an adverb.
What do you think?

All the best, :)

I disagree. I understand the sense that you get, but there is really no precedent for a noun being an adverb. A "mile" is a unit of distance. As such, it is a thing, not a way of walking.

What would you say about these?

We walked a mile.

"Mile" is marked as a noun by the indefinite article that precedes it.

We walked fifty feet.

"Feet" is marked as a noun because it is modified by an adjective.

Originally Posted by MikeNewYork

I disagree. I understand the sense that you get, but there is really no precedent for a noun being an adverb. A "mile" is a unit of distance. As such, it is a thing, not a way of walking.

What would you say about these?

We walked a mile.

"Mile" is marked as a noun by the indefinite article that precedes it.

We walked fifty feet.

"Feet" is marked as a noun because it is modified by an adjective.

Dear Mike,

I believe there are many grammarians with different views on the subject in question." People have a different way of thinking. It works in linguistic parts. I am also one of them.
As you know, the eight parts of speech are a noun, an adjective,an adverb....and so on. Those things function as their own, but sometimes their parts of speech are not same with their functions. I believe a part of speech depends on its meaning.
For example, 'We walked miles'. You think 'miles' is a noun in a part of speech, don't you . But it is an adverb when it comes to its function. A teacher who lives in UK says 'miles' is an adverbial objective. He mention about it '(Many) miles' here can be classified as an adverbial objective, representing in elliptical form the adverbial prepositional phrase 'for (many) miles'.

What do you think?
Why are there many functions of one noun in a dictionary?
What is the standard of characterizing the eight parts of speech?
Is the standard a meaning or a function?

Let me show you another example.

'Now is time for you to help me.'
'Now' is an adverb in a dictionary. How can an adverb be the subject of the sentence?
It is an adverb functioning as a noun. That is an application of a function and meaning of a word. It allows us to express more things.

How about this?

"Millennials believe in preparation, in their track records," Mr. Howe said. "They're thinking about what kinds of careers they're going to have."

I believe 'Millennial' is an adjective, and I also found it in a dictionary. But the writer used 'Millennial' as a noun. The noun of 'Millennial' is a 'Millennialist' or a 'Millennarian'. Is it grammatical sentence?
It seems to be an adjective which the writer has turned into a noun.
That's what I am saying.

You ask me

"What would you say about these?

We walked a mile.

"Mile" is marked as a noun by the indefinite article that precedes it.

We walked fifty feet.

"Feet" is marked as a noun because it is modified by an adjective.

This is my answer

We consider 'Miles' as a noun. But sometimes we need to use it as an adverb like that I mentioned.
'four miles' or 'fifty feet' is one cluster fuctioning as an adverb. It means 'miles' and 'feet' are a noun, it is modified by an adjective, and the cluster functions as an adverb.
If we frequently use 'miles' as an adverb, a dictionary hold the function of an adverb of 'Mile'. and then It can be modifed by an adverb. But It is not usual, and there is only a noun in a dictionary. For example, If people often use 'Millennial' as a noun, it become usual. It can be a noun. That's why there are many function of one word in a dictionary. I believe it is one of the mechanism of a language.

If you have any question, tell me about it :)

[Casiopea]

Very, very kewl. 8) 8)

We walked miles.

Question: How did we walk?
Answer: We walked (in) miles. (Adverb)

Gotcha! :D

[Tdol]

As opposed to Europeans walking kilometres?

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by tdol

As opposed to Europeans walking kilometres?

You've mistaken me for Ss. :wink:

[RonBee]

I am just barely accepting of We walked miles as a substitute for We walked for miles. I am not prepared to accept the use of miles as an adverb.

:)