Is "a pretend conversation" grammatically correct?

Question

I was watching a movie (native speakers) and I noticed this sentence:

'She was having a pretend conversation on the phone...'

Is it grammatically correct? I checked the word "pretend" with Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - it said "pretend" only exists in verb form. I couldn't find any other cases of using a verb + a noun to form a noun phrase like this.

I think it should be constructed thus: verb with -ing or -ed + noun = noun phrase. Am I right? Alternatively, if the speaker is right, please enlighten me and give me some examples in which this kind of grammar applies.

Answer 1

"A pretend conversation" is grammatically correct. People who are inclined to call any word that can be placed before a noun to modify its meaning an "adjective" classify pretend as an adjective when it is used like this; I'm not sure about this classification, but you can think of it that way if you find it helpful. The division between parts of speech can often seem blurry in English; pretend can also be used as a noun.

The online version of the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary seems to have a definition of pretend as an adjective:

pretend adjective

imaginary or not real:

• "Do you want a cup of tea?" she asks, offering me a pretend cup.
• They knew the argument was only pretend, but they still got upset."

Pretend doesn't behave exactly like a typical adjective though. It can also be used as a noun, as in "they were playing pretend." (I found mention of this in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

I would say it is definitely no more of an adjective than the word fun. Like fun, pretend can be used:

• as an uncountable noun: "You mustn't be afraid of pretend" (1965 G. McInnes Road to Gundagai iii. 54, cited in the Oxford English Dictionary)
• as a predicate after a form of to be: "It was all pretend"
• as an attributive word modifying a following noun: "a pretend conversation" (your example)

Pretend is not like a normal adjective mainly in that it is not "gradable":

• We can't add the adjective suffixes -er or -est to pretend

• People also don't say things like "very pretend"

Actually, this probably makes it less of an adjective than fun ( "funner" and "funnest" are stigmatized, but have some use, and "very fun" does exist for some people, although other people find it ungrammatical).

Another similar word is make-believe. This also started out as a verb, but is now also used as an uncountable noun, as a predicate after be, and as an attributive "adjective":

• the children made believe they were doctors
• She squandered millions on a life of make-believe.
• The violence in those films was too unreal, it was make-believe.
• 'But, why?' he asked in make-believe astonishment.

(Example sentences from the Collins English Dictionary)