A language column zeroes in on the sentence 'Kola is a talkative,' which wrongly treats the adjective as a noun. Proper usage is either 'Kola is talkative' or 'Kola is a talkative person.' The piece extends the point to words like 'destitute,' another adjective people often misplace in a sentence. The advice underneath it all is simple: check whether a word describes something or names it before building a sentence around it.