Level: intermediate
Often a noun phrase is just a noun or a pronoun:
People like to have money.
I am tired.
Premodifiers
But noun phrases can also include:
- determiners: Those houses are very expensive.
- quantifiers: I've lived in a lot of houses.
- numbers: My brother owns two houses.
- adjectives: I love old houses.
These parts of the noun phrase are called premodifiers because they go before the noun.
We use premodifiers in this order:
| determiners and quantifiers | > | numbers | > | adjectives + NOUNS |
For example:
| Determiners and quantifiers | Numbers | Adjectives | NOUNS |
| The | six | children | |
| Our | young | children | |
| Six | young | children | |
| These | six | young | children |
| Some | young | children | |
| All those | six | young | children |
| Their many | young | children |
Postmodifiers
Other parts of a noun phrase go after the noun. These are called postmodifiers.
Postmodifiers can be:
- prepositional phrases:
a man with a gun
the boy in the blue shirt
the house on the corner
the man standing over there
the boy talking to Angela
the man we met yesterday
the house that Jack built
the woman who discovered radium
an eight-year-old boy who attempted to rob a sweet shop
- that clauses. These are very common after nouns like idea, fact, belief, suggestion:
He's still very fit, in spite of the fact that he's over eighty.
She got the idea that people didn't like her.
There was a suggestion that the children should be sent home.
I've got no decent shoes to wear.
These are very common after indefinite pronouns and adverbs:
You should take something to read.
I need somewhere to sleep.
There may be more than one postmodifier:
an eight-year old boy with a gun who tried to rob a sweet shop
that girl over there in a green dress drinking a Coke
https://linguapress.com/grammar/noun-phrases.htm
Noun phrases in English
What is a noun phrase or noun group in English ?
Related pages: Nouns, Articles , Adjectives, Some or any, other Quantifiers, Possessives: using "of" or "'s", Count & non-count nouns, pronouns
The six most common models for noun phrases
1. Pronoun
2. Noun alone
3. Determiner + noun
4. Determiner + modifier + noun
5. Determiner + noun + extension.
6. Determiner + modifier + noun + extension
Examples
1. They
2. Apples
3. The apples
4. The biggest apples
5. The apples in this box
6. The biggest apples in this box
Other models are possible too.
1. Pronoun
2. Noun alone
3. Determiner + noun
4. Determiner + modifier + noun
5. Determiner + noun + extension.
6. Determiner + modifier + noun + extension
Examples
1. They
2. Apples
3. The apples
4. The biggest apples
5. The apples in this box
6. The biggest apples in this box
Other models are possible too.
Two simple "rules" govern the use of the noun group in English.
1. Most noun phrases consist of at least two elements
Unless a noun is used in a generalising sense (see articles), a noun group consists of at least the following elements: a determiner and a noun.A determiner is one of the following:
- an article (the, a, an, some, any),
- a quantifier (no, few, a few, many, etc.),
- a possessive (my, your, whose, the man's, etc.),
- a demonstrative (this, that, these, those),
- a numeral (one, two, three etc.)
- or a question word (which, whose, how many, etc.).
Except in some very rare cases, a noun can only be preceded by ONE determiner:
Examples: the man, some women, a few dogs, your horse, the man's horse* , that car, whose money, how many bottles?
(In this example, the man's horse* there appear to be two determiners before horse, but in fact there is only one: the determiner before horse is the man, and the article the is the determiner of the word man.)
2. Many noun phrases also include "modifiers"
A noun group can also contain one or more modifiers.
A modifier is an adjective, an adjectival phrase, a secondary noun, a prepositional phrase or a relative clause. The principal noun in a noun group is called the head noun.
- Adjectives are placed before the head noun: as in the Great Gatsby
(Click here for ► How to place adjectives in the right order) - Adjective phrases usually come before the head noun: as in:
a black-and-white striped vest
a rather tight-fitting dress - Secondary nouns behave exactly like adjectives, and come before the head noun:
a beer glass, the police inspector, a London bus - Prepositional phrases and relative clauses follow the head noun, as in:
the students in our class or the girl who gave me her phone-number.
The nice old-fashioned police inspector with white hair, who was drinking his beer, was Mr. Morse.
3. Some common exceptions
Sometimes an adjective or an adjectival phrase will follow the noun, or appear to do so. There are three cases that need to be noted:- A very few adjectives always follow the noun: concerned (in the sense of "being talked about"), and involved (in the sense of "participating", or "being present") are the two common ones.
- Other participial adjectives (such as left, remaining, missing) appear to be used as adjectives that follow the noun; in reality, they are elliptical forms of a relative clause that has become reduced to a single word.
- Adjectives follow the noun when the adjectives themselves are post-modified (defined) by a following phrase.
There's been an outbreak of flu, but there are only fifteen people concerned.
After the fight, the police arrested the men involved.
Oh look ! there is only one chocolate left !!
We can't go yet !! There are still three people missing.
There was a crowd bigger than last year.
After the fight, the police arrested the men involved.
Oh look ! there is only one chocolate left !!
We can't go yet !! There are still three people missing.
There was a crowd bigger than last year.
See also....
Return to English Grammar index
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Modifiers :
| https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/modifiers_modify.htm |
| https://linguapress.com/grammar/quantifiers.htm |
