Noun Phrase Guide: How to Use Noun Phrases in Writing

In the English language, nouns are the words used to refer to people, places, or things. A noun phrase is a group of words, usually a noun in addition to a modifier—such as an adjective, adverb, or article—that functions just as a noun would. Grammatically, a noun phrase can be the subject, object, subject complement, or object complement in the sentence in which it appears.

According to English grammar rules, noun phrases are equivalent to nouns, but depending on their placement in the sentence, they can have various grammatical roles. There are two broad categories of noun phrases: those with premodifiers and those with postmodifiers.

1. 1. Noun phrases with premodifiers: As the names suggest, premodifiers are words that come before the noun in the noun phrase. These words are typically adjectives, participles, articles, possessive nouns, possessive pronouns, and compound nouns.
2. 2. Noun phrases with postmodifier: Noun phrases can include other phrases, such as prepositional, participle, and compound phrases, as well as relative clauses. When this occurs, the additional words tend to come after the noun, meaning they are postmodifiers. Infinitives and relative clauses are other postmodifiers.

A noun clause has a noun and a verb. In other words, a noun clause has a subject and a predicate, like a sentence, but because it is dependent, it doesn’t express a complete thought. A noun phrase is a group of words that includes a noun.

A noun clause and a noun phrase have similar grammatical functions, but the composition is different. Consider the following sentence: “The moviegoers are walking out of the theater.” In this sentence, “The moviegoers are walking out” is a noun clause, since it has a subject and a verb. “Out of the theater” or simply “the theater” are noun phrases, since they contain a noun, but lack a verb to complete the clause.

Noun phrases with premodifiers tend to utilize adjectives, participles, articles, possessive nouns, possessive pronouns, compound nouns, and determiners to modify the noun. Consider the following examples:

1. 1. “Spotted dogs are my favorite.” In this sentence, the adjective “spotted” modifies the subject noun, “dogs,” in the noun phrase “spotted dogs”
2. 2. “The flying circus won’t be back until next summer.” “The” is an article, and “flying” is a participle, both of which modify the subject noun “circus.”
3. 3. “Innumerable termites had been found in the house’s foundation.” Here, “innumerable” is a determiner which modifies the plural noun “termites” in the sentence.
4. 4. “The director’s shot list still hasn’t been found.” “The director’s” is a possessive noun that modifies the subject noun “shot list.”

Noun phrases with postmodifiers utilize prepositional, participle, and compound phrases, relative clauses, and more. Consider the following examples:

1. 1. “The woman of the house was always up before dawn.” In this sentence, the prepositional phrase “of the house” is a postmodifier in the noun phrase “the woman of the house.”
2. 2. “The person jumping up and down is my cousin.” “Jumping up and down” is a participle phrase, and it modifies the preceding noun “person.”
3. 3. “Todd, who was green with envy, watched the winning team step onto the podium.” The adjective clause “who was green with envy” modifies the subject noun “Todd.”
4. 4. “The hat that was found at the crime scene was a major clue.” In this sentence, “that was found at the crime scene” is a relative clause, which is also known as an adjective clause. It modifies the subject by giving additional contextual information about the subject of the sentence.

Noun phrases can play various grammatical roles within a sentence as a subject, object, or complement. Consider the following noun phrase example sentences:

1. 1. “A blue crab crawled sideways across the beach.” In this sentence, the noun phrase “A blue crab” is functioning as the subject of the sentence.
   
2. 2. “They fought like tigers.” In this sentence, the noun phrase “like tigers” is an adverbial, because it functions as an adverb, describing how they fought.
3. 3. “The pitcher threw a blistering fastball.” Here, “a blistering fastball” is a noun phrase that functions as a direct object, being the thing that the pitcher (the subject) threw (the verb).
4. 4. “I read my little sister a story.” The noun phrase “My little sister” is the indirect object of the sentence, as it is affected by the verb but not the direct object of the verb, which is “a story.”
5. 5. “We both walked along the pier in silence.” In this sentence, the noun phrase “along the pier” works as a prepositional phrase, because the noun “pier” is modified by the preposition “along.”
6. 6. “Most scientists agree that drastic action must be taken immediately.” The noun phrase “most scientists” is a noun plus a determiner, meaning that the word “most” determines something essential about the noun. In this case, it is a specific kind of determiner known as a quantifier, because it is revealing how many scientists agree.

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