Many people have an idea of what the word, mediocre, means in terms of not being very good or being of average quality. They also love to use it. What only few, however, realise is that it is an adjective and not a noun.
If you, for instance, use it as we have in the following sentences, you have committed a word class-related grammatical error:
The man is a mediocre. He cannot handle the job.
There are a lot of mediocres among our engineers.
The sentences are wrong because the term has been used as a noun instead of an adjective that it is. Because it is an adjective, you have to present it in a way that describes someone or something. You do not say it is that person or thing:
- The man is mediocre. He cannot handle the job.
- There are a lot of mediocre folks among the engineers.
A lot of the engineers are mediocre.
In the three clauses, ‘mediocre’ respectively describes man, folks and engineers.
Consider these two examples from Cambridge Dictionary also:
The film’s plot is predictable and the acting is mediocre.
Parents don’t want their children going to mediocre schools.
The examples further show that, like many other adjectives, ‘mediocre’ can work before or after the nouns it describes:
We have to drop the mediocre idea.
- The idea is mediocre.
- Mediocrity
The nominal form (noun) of ‘mediocre’ is mediocrity. This means that it enjoys all the grammatical power that all other nouns enjoy. As a matter of fact, it can be pluralised, thus becoming mediocrities because it is a countable noun, at least in some contexts:
There is mediocrity in the system.
Mediocrity is the bane of development in the sector.
I can’t give him the job because he is a mediocrity.
All the investment in security is not yielding much fruit because there are many mediocrities in the police and other agencies.
Destitute too
This is a word that you should also normally handle as an adjective – not a noun. It is a matter we once discussed in this class. So, we will not go into details. Just note that the standard way to use ‘destitute’ is to make it describe an object or a state of being:
- I can’t stand the fellow because he is a destitute. (Wrong)
- I can’t stand the fellow because he is destitute. (Correct)
- I learnt they want to rehabilitate the destitutes. (Wrong)
- I learnt they want to rehabilitate the destitute fellow/man/woman. (Correct)
- However, ‘the destitute’ is also correct in the context since it has the status of adjectival nouns – like the rich, the poor etc.
- I learnt they want to rehabilitate the poor. (Correct)
- I learnt they want to rehabilitate the destitute. (Correct)
- Then, you should ask me: what about ‘the mediocre’? Your guess is right! It is also acceptable as an adjectival noun:
- The mediocre are the bane of our health sector. (Correct)
Pronouncing ‘mediocre’
There is an aspect of the word that is often mispronounced. That is the first vowel, ‘e’. The letter is usually wrongly pronounced as E (like the one we have in mEssage, mElody and Egg. This is wrong. It should come out as the ‘e’ (/i/) we have in mIdea (media), bIside (beside) and dIstroy (destroy). So, when next you need to articulate ‘mediocre’, say mIdiocre, not mEdiocre.
