In this usage, is "three" an adverb or adjective?

Question

The sentence: I am making three pound cakes.

Now, add a hyphen, and the meaning of the sentences changes completely:

I am making three-pound cakes.

In each instance, what part of speech is the word "three"?

Answer 1

adverb. three being the amount, and not three being the description of weight.

Answer 2

An adjective is something that modifies a noun or another adjective, so when, in the first sentence, you say three pound cakes, the three modifies the cakes, so it is an adjective describing a noun, or if you like, two adjectives describing a noun. In the case of three-pound cakes, the three modifies the other adjective, pound, so both threes are adjectives. Adverbs are words that modify verbs, and, to my knowledge, the "pound" in pound cakes describes the weight of the cakes, not the way that they are made.

Answer 3

In the first case, it's not an adverb. That's for sure. I think it would be called a "quantifier" which acts on the noun "cakes"

In the second case, it's not a part of speech at all, it's part of the hyphenated word "three-pound" which is an adjective.

Answer 4

Three Adjectives

Answer 5

This is a compound noun (Adj-Noun Noun) and 'three' is an adjective in grammar, or termed a quantifier in Linguistics.

It should be written "three-pound cakes", to tie the adjective to the first noun in the compound. In compounds, adjectives that aren't hyphenated apply to the 'head' or final noun.

Answer 6

The firs t three is modifing the verb to make, so it is an adverb. The second, it is modifing the noun cakes, so it is an adjective.

Answer 7

omg so everyone else is WRONG

in the first its an adjective cuz its describing cakes, which is a noun--am making is the verb

in the second, its an adjective too, for the same reason

Answer 8

In each instance "three" is an adjective.

Answer 9

first adverb
second adjective