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Noun Phrases and Noun Clauses

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1.Noun Phrases
A noun phrase is a group of words that has a noun and one or
more modifiers in it.

• A smart man
• The last match
• That happy puppy
• The shoes with ruby jewels
• The little boy
• Dancing in the rain
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Possible structures of noun phrase

1. Pre-modifier +noun
2. Noun +post-modifier
3. Pre-modifier + noun+ Post-modifier
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Three things in pre-modifiers:
1. Determiners
• Articles: a, an, the
I don’t have an apple.

• Possessive adjectives: my, your, his, her, their

I love your dog

• Demonstrative adjectives: this, that, those, these

They are planning to cut that tree.

• Distributive adjectives: each, every, either, neither

Every team played well.

• Quantifiers: Some, many, a lot of, several

I have a few friends to meet.
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2. Numbers
Ex. This is my first trip to China.
3. Adjectives
Ex. It is a big hotel.

Point to remember
We can’t use two or more types of determinants in a noun phrase.
Ex. A this car A= article, this= Demonstrative adjective
My this car My= possessive adjective, this= demonstrative
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Post-modifiers
Post-modifiers are words that come after a noun and give information
about it.
1. Prepositional phrase
Ex. The guy in the blue shirt is my is my neighbour.
2. Present participle phrase
Ex. The man talking to your sister is a professional dancer.
3. Past participle phrase
Ex. The man taken to the police station is a terrorist.
5. Infinitives
I wish I had someone to stand by me.
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Noun Clauses
Clause: Subject and Verb in a sentence
Noun clause: It is a dependent clause that starts with a subordinating
conjunction functions as a noun in a sentence.

Subordinating Conjunction: That, how, why, whoever, whether, when,

which, where, etc.

Ex. What megan wrote surprised her family.

Noun
Clause
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Noun phrases vs noun clauses Functions

1. As a subject
Noun phrase
• Some people deserve more than what they get.
• The strength of a nation is its people.

Noun Clause
• What you are doing is very dangerous.
• How you read my mind is mind-blowing.
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2. As the object
Noun phrase
• I need some people.
• I love my teachers.

Noun clause
• I hate what you are doing.
• Nobody understands how you read my mind.
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3. As the object of a preposition

Noun phrase
• I don’t believe in this company.
You can’t talk bad about my parents.

Noun clause
• Nobody cares about what you are doing.
• I don’t believe in what I haven’t experienced.
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4. As the subject complement

Noun phrase
• You are my love.
• My dog is my best friend.

Noun clause
• Happiness is what’s inside the bag.
• His problem was that he didn’t listen to anyone.
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5. As the object complement

Noun phrase
• We can’t make him the leader of the group.
• She name her dog the cute devil.

Noun clause
• You can call me whatever you want.
• They made me what I wanted to be.
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Noun clause vs noun phrase

Noun Phrase
It doesn’t have a subject-verb combination
It works as a noun
It comprises of a noun and some modifiers
Functions: subject, object, object of preposition, subject
complement, object complement
Ex. My green gym socks are in the hamper.
Noun clause
It does have a subject-verb combination
It works as a noun
It comprises of a subordinating conjunction, a subject, a
verb, and objects and modifiers
Functions: subject, object, object of preposition, subject
complement,
Ex. What you are eating looks delicious.