Is it "Patience is virtue" or "Patience is a virtue"???

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pg22

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Feb 9, 2000
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My brother and I are arguing over this and it's pissing me off :)

I swear it's the former - "Patience is virtue" but he says otherwise, as does my pops and uncle. I think they're dumb ;)
 
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loup garou

Lifer
Feb 17, 2000
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It's "Patience is A virtue." And you swear it's the former, not the latter.

Patience is one of the 12 virtues of a good teacher, along with dignity, calmness, humility, prudence, wisdom, self-control, gentleness, zeal, vigilence, prayerfullness, and generosity, as written by Brother Agathon.

 
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pg22

Platinum Member
Feb 9, 2000
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Thanks, but are you 100% sure? I actually Google'd and found a name with the saying "Langly"
 
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pg22

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Feb 9, 2000
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wow, I guess that settles it, and I'm the dumbnut :\

Thanks guys :)
 

Good question, but easy answer. "Patience is virtue" may sound good, but it isn't grammatically proper. "Virtue" is a noun and never serves as an adjective. So, saying "patience is virtue" would be using "virtue" as an adjective. It doesn't exist as an adjective. Hence, as a noun, the proper grammar is "patience is a virtue".
 
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SSP

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
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Originally posted by: pg19
wow, I guess that settles it, and I'm the dumbnut :\

Thanks guys :)
Click to expand...

So are you going to admit you were wrong to your brother? :D
 
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Mizer

Senior member
Oct 7, 2002
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Originally posted by: luvly
Good question, but easy answer. "Patience is virtue" may sound good, but it isn't grammatically proper. "Virtue" is a noun and never serves as an adjective. So, saying "patience is virtue" would be using "virtue" as an adjective. It doesn't exist as an adjective. Hence, as a noun, the proper grammar is "patience is a virtue".
Click to expand...

This is cool, thanks for taking me to school. Good grammar is hard to find. :)



 
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loup garou

Lifer
Feb 17, 2000
35,132
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Originally posted by: luvly
Good question, but easy answer. "Patience is virtue" may sound good, but it isn't grammatically proper. "Virtue" is a noun and never serves as an adjective. So, saying "patience is virtue" would be using "virtue" as an adjective. It doesn't exist as an adjective. Hence, as a noun, the proper grammar is "patience is a virtue".
Click to expand...
War is hell. :p
 
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Vadatajs

Diamond Member
Aug 28, 2001
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Originally posted by: luvly
Good question, but easy answer. "Patience is virtue" may sound good, but it isn't grammatically proper. "Virtue" is a noun and never serves as an adjective. So, saying "patience is virtue" would be using "virtue" as an adjective. It doesn't exist as an adjective. Hence, as a noun, the proper grammar is "patience is a virtue".
Click to expand...

Techically it is a correct way of saying that virtue=patience. Meaning that patience is the only virue and vice versa. It's like saying: "Mark Twain is Samuel Clemens." Both are nouns, neither acts as an adjective.

Either way, "Patience is virtue" is wrong.
 

"Techically it is a correct way of saying that virtue=patience. Meaning that patience is the only virue and vice versa. It's like saying: 'Mark Twain is Samuel Clemens.' Both are nouns, neither acts as an adjective."

No, I disagree. Technically it's improper grammar. The only time it works for a noun is when you use a proper noun. If "virtue" were made a proper noun, then it would be proper to say "patience is Virtue". You can say Mark Twain is Samuel Clemens because "Samuel Clemens" is a proper noun. On the other hand, if you were trying to say "Mark Twain is a man", for instance, but said "Mark Twain is man", then that would most definitely be a bad grammar. The fact that people do it doesn't make it right. The only time your statement applies is when they are proper nouns, not common nouns. "Virtue" is a common noun, not a proper noun. For common nouns it's improper not to add "a" or "an", as lack of such would make the words act as adjectives (or verbs or adverbs sometimes). Hence, patience is a virtue.
 
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