Why in some sentences noun comes before adjective?



Why in some sentences noun comes before adjective ?


For example robot soccer instead of soccer robot.



Answer



Actually, the noun doesn't appear before the adjective in your sentences.


In robot soccer, the word robot is a noun which acts as an adjective for soccer. The phrase means soccer for robots.


If you compare this to the other phrase, soccer robot, you'll see that the same logic applies. The word soccer now acts as an adjective and modifies robot. The phrase now means a robot which plays soccer or a robot which is designed to play soccer.



The following does not apply to your examples, but could help you avoid further confusion on this subject in the future:


In more complex phrases, two nouns can follow each other and still both act as nouns. In that case, there is most likely a conjunction between them that has been ellipted:



I invented a type of soccer robots can play.



Here, both soccer and robots are nouns, but robots could play is a postmodifier for soccer. You can place a conjunction such as that or which in between them which here has been ellipted:



I invented a type of soccer that robots can play.



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