Does this sentence make grammatical sense?

[padanarm]

This was an example presented on a 'clearer english training course'.

"You are all invited to the residential on Tuesday".

I think 'residential' is an adjective so the sentence is missing an object or noun (eg. residential meeting). Can anyone help clarify?

[Buenchico]

I can only assume that the wording you refer to was printed an an 'invite' ;-)
[Grrrr! I hate that misuse of English!]

I agree with you.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary agrees with you.
The dictionary on my PC (Sage) agrees with you.
All of the online dictionaries I've checked agree with you.
Only Microsoft Word possibly disagrees with you (because the grammar check function fails to identify any error with that sentence).

Chris

[padanarm]

Yeah. Being a poorly educated pleb, I understood 'the' indicated a noun was to follow.

'residential' was an adjective and modified the noun, so where was the noun? The 'residential meeting' or 'residential activity' would seem appropriate.

This example was provided by someone who was supposedly approved by the Clear Engerlish Society.

[jno]

it sounds like jargon to me, but that's not necessarily bad English, it's more like a sort of dialect in which some words or expressions are used that are clear to locals but not to other speakers of the language. Rocket scientists probably use lots of words I don't understand but that doesn't make them bad English. Presumably whoever wrote it expected you to know what a residential was. I have no idea myself (I expect your guess is correct), but perhaps the term is more common in your line of work?

[jno]

...another example: 'We're having a do on Saturday'... 'do' should be a verb, of course. But here it's being used as a noun, the same as 'residential'. Words do change from one part of speech to another - Shakespeare was particularly fond of doing it.

[swedeheart]

Same principle as mobile for mobile phone, submarine for submarine boat or memorial for memorial service, isn't it? This kind of development has always been around, although I suspect verbs are "nounified" more often than adjectives are, and I also suspect it's more common in American English than in British English.

[dundurn]

It may not be in your dictionaries but people are starting to use residential as a noun. They occasionally also make use of the noun overnight. In most cases the omitted noun is understood perfectly by the users. The intention is to make the contrast between a day (course), an overnight (course) and a residential (course).

[Quizmonster]

Just as a matter of interest, the earliest recorded use of invite as a noun dates back to the 1650s and it has been with us ever since. After the best part of half a millennium, it's hardly a misuse now, especially in colloquial circumstances.
It's no different from command, really, which lasted solely as a verb for a couple of centuries before Shakespeare 'nounified' it.
I think we should just accept language modifications such as residential as a noun, as they're not going to go away. Let's fight barbarisms like could of in place of could've, by all means, however.

[dr b]

The OED defines "residential" as: "B. as noun. A residential hotel." (first usage listed was from 1953).

[padanarm]

Interesting. Residential as a noun seems popular with students and young people, probably an Americanism. I've heard that any verb in the English language can be turned into a noun, but not heard of adjectives.

dundurn. I've heard overnighter, which seems so much more British.

quizmonster. invite is sloppy - one's butler should, of course, send an invitation.

dr b, suppose it takes a while for changes to catch on.

[Quizmonster]

Padanarm, I'm sure the queen would not dream of saying to her secretary, "Have the invites gone out for my next garden party?" However, there is nothing whatsoever wrong with a bloke telling his mate, "I can't go to the match on Saturday, 'cos I've accepted an invite to my cousin's wedding."
It's not sloppy, it's colloquial.
If command - first recorded as a verb in 1300 - can become a noun in 1591 and be perfectly acceptable thereafter, why can't invite - first recorded as a verb in 1553 - become a noun in 1659? At that point in time, invitation itself was no more than a Johnny-come-lately, having been around for less than fifty years!
A word's part of speech is constantly subject to change. Is key, as an adjective..."Winning hearts and minds is key"...sloppy because it has been around for only a decade or two? The potential such list is virtually endless.

If it's what most of us say - as in mobile for mobile phone, mentioned by SH above - it's OK as far as I'm concerned.

But what the hey!

[Bert]

I would certainly not have understood the sentence presented as an example. (I am 60 and English.) Perhaps it was presented as an example of bad English? I wonder who said this first: 'You can verb any noun'? which, of course, is using that very device. It's what Padanarm said, but more succinct.

[swedeheart]

Well I'm only fifty and Swedish but the University of Oxford has been around for a while and they do residentials =:0

I don't like every change in language either but language is a beast, it's alive. BTW those of you who dislike residential as a noun, do you not accept "a submarine"? Or "a mobile"?

[swedeheart]

padanarm, I just now saw your reflection in Music concerning Great Organ Works and how you "think it's a noun rather than a verb" - made my day! :-D