Noun Phrases

A noun phrase is either a pronoun or any group of words that can be replaced by a pronoun. For example, 'they', 'cars', and 'the cars' are noun phrases, but 'car' is just a noun, as you can see in these sentences (in which the noun phrases are all in bold)

Q: Do you like cars?
A: Yes, I like them.
Q: Do you like the cars over there?
A: Yes, they are nice.
Q: Do you like the car I bought last week?
A: Yes, I like it. (Note: 'It' refers to 'the car', not 'car')

If you are a little puzzled at this point, try and think of some further examples of noun phrases using the definition above, and compare your examples with simple nouns.

The structure of noun phrases
As I said, noun phrases can be infinite in length, but they would sound absurd if they got too long. So let's take the following noun phrase as our working model:

• "The very tall education consultant with the roving eye"
  
  The structure of this noun phrase contains three sections:

• Pre-modification
  • The =determiner
  • very =adverb (intensifying)
  • tall = adjective
  • education = pre-modifying noun

• Head noun
  • consultant

• Post-modification
  • with the roving eye = preposition phrase

How can we develop nouns into noun phrases?

  

By adding a determiner: a, an, the, some, your, his, many, more, five, etc.

e.g: # an envelope

# five coconuts

 By adding adjectives: good, bad, long, short, beautiful, etc.

e.g.: # a good university

# beautiful palaces

# long bamboos

By adding a present participle: opening, walking, running, sleeping, etc.

e.g.: # an opening ceremony

# a running brook

# the tree standing in the garden

# The girl sitting between John and me.

By adding a past participle: written,spoken,crooked,made,etc.

e.g.: # a written text

# a spoken test

# the letter typed by the secretary

# the door opened by the maid

By adding a noun: bus, TV, arm, potato, etc.

e.g.: # a bus station

# a TV screen

# an arm chair

By adding a preposition: in, on, at, of, in front of, etc.

e.g.: # the house at the foot of the hill

# the color of the ocean

# the bank opposite the cinema

By adding an infinitive: to read, to cover, to send, etc.

e.g.: # a few books to read

# a stamp to send a letter

# a blanket to cover your body 

By adding a WH clause:who,which,whose,etc.

e.g.: # the man whose daughter married to the King

# the lady who had a big house on the hill

# the river which ran across the land

Structures of noun phrases:

• A beautiful old painting on the wall

The structure of this noun phrase contains three sections:

Pre-modifier	Head noun	Post-modifier
A beautiful old	painting	on the wall
A beautiful old	painting	-
-	painting	on the wall