Parts of a Noun Phrase

A noun phrase has two parts: a noun, and any modifiers connected to that noun. Most often, these
modifiers will be adjectives, articles, and prepositional phrases. The modifiers may also be determiners.

a. Noun

A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. All noun phrases will have core noun, with modifiers connected
to it.

Example

The pirate buried his treasure on an island for retirement

The four nouns in this sentence are a person, thing, place and idea, respectively.

b. Modifier – Article

There are only three articles in modern English: a, an, the. An article is always connected to a noun, and
so when one is used it is always part of a noun phrase.

Example 1

The river is deeper after it rains

In this example, the noun phrase contains a noun (‘river’) and an article (‘the’). The noun phrase ‘the
river’ is the subject of the sentence.
c. Modifier – Adjective

An adjective is a word that describes nouns or pronouns.

Example 1

The young puppy chased its tail

The adjective ‘young’ is describing ‘puppy’. The two words combine to make a noun phrase, which is the
subject of the sentence.

d. Modifier – Prepositional Phrase

A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with an object. They
add details, such as where something is or when an event occurred.

Example 1

The box in the attic is full of memories

This noun phrase includes the prepositional phrase ‘in the attic’. It is giving us a detail about the noun
‘box’ – where it is located. The noun phrase in this example is the subject of the sentence.

Example 2

My little brother always feared monsters in the closet

The prepositional phrase ‘in the closet’ modifies (describes) the noun ‘monster’. The noun and
prepositional phrase combine to make the noun phrase ‘monsters in the closet’.

e. Determiner

A determiner is a word that clarifies a noun. It is used to differentiate between similar nouns.
Determiners answer questions such as ‘Which one?’, ‘Whose?’, ‘How many?”, or ‘How much?’

Example 1

Those people are so friendly!

The determiner ‘those’ tells us which people are friendly. The noun phrase ‘those people’ is the subject
of the sentence.

4. Types of Noun Phrase

a. Noun Phrase as a Subject

A subject is a noun that the sentence is about.

Example

Very few giant pandas remain in the wild

This sentence is clearly about the small number of wild Pandas, and so ‘very few giant pandas’ is the
subject of the sentence.

b. Noun Phrase as a Complement

A compliment re-states or gives more information about a noun. It always follows a state-of-being verb
(is, are, am, will be, was, were).

Example

A sailor’s best friend is a wide, open sea

The noun phrase ‘a wide, open sea’ gives us more information about the sailor’s best friend, the sea.
Therefore it acts as a complement to the noun phrase ‘best friend’.

c. Noun Phrase as a Direct Object

A direct object is the noun or pronoun that receives the action of a verb.

Example

Grandma cooked a meal for ten people, even though there were only four of us

The verb in this sentence is ‘cooked’, and the object that is being cooked is ‘a meal.’ The rest of the
phrase ‘for ten people’ creates a noun phrase that acts as a direct object.

d. Noun Phrase as an Indirect Object

An indirect object receives the direct object.

Example

Trudy gave her hungry, crying baby a bottle

The noun phrase answers the question, “Who did Trudy give the bottle to?” The phrase ‘her hungry,
crying baby’ is the indirect object because it receives the bottle (‘a bottle’ is the direct object because it
is receiving the action ‘gave’).

5. How to Write Noun Phrase

A noun phrase centers on a noun. But, that noun may be described by adding modifiers, and adding
modifiers to a noun creates a noun phrase. You will quickly note that many nouns have articles (a, an,
the) attached to them.

Example:

Cats sleep a lot. (no noun phrase)

The cat (article + noun)

The fluffy, long-haired cat (article +adjectives + noun)

The cat on top of the stool is sleeping. (article + noun + prepositional phrase)

Most big cats hunt at night. (determiner + adjective + noun)