Military wearing out its welcome to me

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

Originally Posted by otowi

We have a word for that: We say "He's militaristic" when referring to traits. We use "He's military" to mean someone has the quality of "being military" which in this context means one is in the military, or perhaps, one's family is. One could also say "He's in the military" but it is not the only way to say that that is grammatically correct. Saying "He's military" is also grammatically correct and there is nothing wrong with it. If you prefer one way, that's fine, but the other way is not incorrect.

If "military" is being used as an adjective to describe the noun (in this case, "he"), then it would not also makes sense to say "he is in the military." For example, I can say "he is tall," in which case "tall" is an adjective describing "he." However, it doesn't make sense to say "he is in tall." If a word is actually just describing the noun, it doesn't make sense to include it as part of a prepositional phrase.

Obviously, "he is in the military" makes sense, so "he is military" doesn't.

I think you guys are confusing the concept of a phrase being commonly-used with it being grammatically correct.

Edit to add: If "military" is being used as an adjective here, how does the phrase "he is in the military" make sense? That would be like saying "he is in tall." Prepositional phrases involve nouns. We say people are in a noun, not in an adjective. You can be in jail, your car, trouble, etc. You can't be in blue or in mean or in excellent.

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

Originally Posted by Kar54

Otowi, I completely agree. You say potayto... I say whatever. I can't see this being a grammatical issue whatsoever. An issue of perceptional interpretation perhaps. Grammatical, no. Now, excuse me while I go to "hospital" on the way to "university".

What other word would you use to describe how we put together various parts of speech, such as nouns, adjectives and prepositions? If this isn't grammar, I don't know what is.

[Mike from back east]

Why in the hell are we arguing grammar usage? Good grief.

Thread closed.