Noun Phrases

A noun phrase is either a single noun or pronoun or a group of words containing a noun or a pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun, as the subject or object of a verb.

§  Examples Of Noun Phrases:

EG: John was late.
('John' is the noun phrase functioning as the subject of the verb.)
EG: The people that I saw coming in the building at nine o'clock have just left.
('The people ... nine o'clock' is a lengthy noun phrase, but it functions as the subject of the main verb 'have just left').

Nouns

To begin our discussion, we must first establish the notion of a noun.   

English teachers commonly identify nouns by their content.    They describe nouns as words that "identify people, places, or things," as well as feelings or ideas—words like salesman , farm , balcony , bicycle , and trust.    If you can usually put the word a or the before a word, it’s a noun. If you can make the word plural or singular, it's a noun. But don't worry...all that is needed at the moment is a sense of what a noun might be.

Noun Pre-Modifiers

What if a single noun isn't specific enough for our purposes?      How then do we modify a noun to construct a more specific reference?    

English places modifiers before a noun.    Here we indicate the noun that is at the center of a noun phrase by an asterisk (*) and modifiers by arrows pointed toward the noun they modify.

white   house

       *

large     man

       *

Modification is a somewhat technical term in linguistics. It does not mean to change something, as when we "modify" a car or dress. To modify means to limit, restrict, characterize, or otherwise focus meaning. We use this meaning throughout the discussion here.

Modifiers before the noun are called pre-modifiers.    All of the pre-modifiers that are present and the noun together form a noun phrase .

NOUN      PHRASE

pre-modifiers noun

     *

By contrast, languages such as Spanish and French place modifiers after the noun

casa blanca       white house

*    

homme grand       big man

*      

            The most common pre-modifiers are adjectives, such as red , long , hot . Other types of words often play this same role.    Not only articles

the       water

        *

but also verbs

running      water

       *

and possessive pronouns

her      thoughts

           *

pre-modifiers limit the reference in a wide variety of ways.   

                           Order:                                      second, last

                           Location:                     kitchen, westerly

                           Source or Origin:         Canadian

                           Color:                                      red, dark

                           Smell:                                       acrid, scented

                           Material:                      metal, oak

                           Size:                                        large, 5-inch

                           Weight:                       heavy

                           Luster:                                     shiny, dull

A number of pre-modifiers must appear first if they appear at all.

                           Specification:                                      a, the, every

                           Designation:                                        this, that, those, these

                           Ownership/Possessive:            my, your, its, their, Mary’s

               Number:                                  one, many

These words typically signal the beginning of a noun phrase.   

Some noun phrases are short:

                                       the table

                                       ®       *           

Some are long:

the second shiny red Swedish touring sedan

     *

a large smelly red Irish setter

     *

my carved green Venetian glass salad bowl

     *

the three old Democratic legislators

        *

Notice that each construction would function as a single unit within a sentence.    (We offer a test for this below,)

The noun phrase is the most common unit in English sentences.    That prevalence can be seen in the following excerpt from an example from the section on the choice of language:

The stock market’s summer swoon turned into a dramatic rout
Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged.

The stock market’s summer swoon turned into   a dramatic rout    *                                *

Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged.
     *                    *

To appreciate the rich possibilities of pre-modifiers, you have only to see how much you can expand a premodifier in a noun phrase:

The book
The history book
The American history book
The illustrated American history book
The recent illustrated American history book
The recent controversial illustrated American history book
The recent controversial illustrated leather bound American history book

Noun Post-Modifiers

We were all taught about pre -modifiers: adjectives appearing before a noun in school.    Teachers rarely speak as much about adding words after the initial reference.    Just as we find pre -modifiers, we also find    post -modifiers—modifiers coming after a noun.

The most common post-modifiers are prepositional phrases:

the book on the table

   *      

civil conflict in Africa

       *     

the Senate of the United States

      *       

Post-modifiers can be short

a dream deferred

     *

or long, as in Martin Luther King Jr.’s reference to

a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves

    *    

and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together

at a table of brotherhood.

Post-modifiers commonly answer the traditional news reporting questions of who , what , where , when , how , or why .    Noun post-modifiers commonly take the following forms:

prepositional phrase                the dog in the store

              *   

_ing phrase                   the girl running to the store

              *   

_ed past tense                          the man wanted by the police

              *   

wh - clauses                              the house where I was born

                *      

that/which clauses                  the thought that I had yesterday

               *     

If you see a preposition, wh - word ( which, who, when where ), -ing verb form, or that or which after a noun, you can suspect a post-modifier and the completion of a noun phrase.   

The Pronoun Test

In school, we were taught that pronouns replaced nouns .    Not so.    Pronouns replace complete noun phrasesPronoun replacement thus offers a test of a complete noun phrase. Consider:

The boy ate the apple in the pie. 

   The boy ate                the apple in the pie.

              *      

Want proof? Introduce the pronoun “it” into the sentence.    If a pronoun truly replaces a noun, we’d get                                        

*The boy ate                  the it in the pie.

No native speaker would say that!    They’d say

               The boy ate                it.

The pronoun replaces the complete noun phrase, the apple in the pie .

Simple Future

Definition:
Simple Future Tense is used to describing job or action that will to do (happened) at future.

The Formula:
1. Will
(+) S + shall/will + Verb I
(-) S + shall/will + not + Verb I
(?) Shall/will + S + Verb I?

2. Going to
(+) S + be + going to + Verb I
(-) S + be + not + goimg to + Verb I
(?) be + S + going to + Verb I?

How do we use the Simple Future Tense?

·         No Plan: we use the simple future tense when there is no plan or decision to do something before we speak. We make the decision spontaneously at the time of speaking.

Example:

1. Hold on. I'll get a pen.
2. We will see what we can do to help you.
3. Maybe we'll stay in and watch television tonight
4. I think I'll go to the gym tomorrow.
5. I think I will have a holiday next year.
6. I don't think I'll buy that car.

·         Prediction: we often use the simple future tense to make a prediction about the future. Again, there is no firm plan. We are saying what we think will happen.

Example:

1. It will rain tomorrow.
2. People won't go to Jupiter before the 22nd century.
3. Who do you think will get the job?

Notes:

1.The written lesson is below.

2.Links to quizzes, tests, etc. are to the left.

The future tense is used to tell what "will" happen, or what "shall" happen.

-I will go to the beach next month.
-I shall write the letter next week.

But, the future tense is not used to express a willingness to do something. For this, use the verb "querer."

Note:
That when we have a plan or intention to do something in the future, we usually use other tenses or expressions, such as the present continuous tense or going to.

Time signal:

1. Tomorrow…

• Morning
• Afternoon
• Evening
• Night

2. Next…

• Time
• Week
• Month
• Year
• January

4.      Tonight
4. The day after tomorrow
5. Soon
6. Later
7. Two, three more days
8. Two, three days later