What is a qualified noun?

[Tom]

Hi

Could you please tell me what a qualified noun is?

Alan says that in the UK it's becoming common to drop the article before a qualified noun.

Thanks

Tom

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

That would be a noun with an adjective preceding it, for example. An adjective would qualify (or limit) the meaning of the noun.

Consider "a trip". You can qualify the noun in lots of different ways:
- a business trip
- a school trip
- a long trip
- a 25-mile trip
- a drug-induced trip

PS
Please keep in mind that the dropping of the article 'a' that Alan has described would sound like either a mistake or (at best) slang in the US.
.