Substantivized adjectives have acquired some or all of the characteristics of the noun, but their adjectival origin is still generally felt.

Substantivized adjectives are divided into wholly substantivized and partially substantivized adjectives.

Wholly substantivized adjectives have all the characteristics of nouns, namely the plural form, the genitive case; they are associated with articles, i. e. they have become nouns:

a native, the natives, a native’s hut.

Some wholly substantivized adjectives have only the plural form:

eatables, valuables, ancients, sweets, greens.

Partially substantivized adjectives acquire only some of the characteristics of the noun; they are used with the definite article. Partially substantivized adjectives denote a whole class:

the rich, the poor, the unemployed.

They may also denote abstract notions:

the good, the evil, the beautiful, the singular, the plural, the future, the present, the past.

Substantivized adjectives denoting nationalities fall under fully and partially substantivized adjectives.

Fully substantivized adjectives are:

a Russian – Russians,
a German – Germans.

Partially substantivized adjectives are:

the English,
the French,
the Chinese.