Noun Phrases
Noun phrases are common in English and are especially good to use in essays such as IELTS Writing Task 2 or Cambridge B2 First Task 1 and C1 Advanced Task 1. Examiners will take note their use and how complex they are, so it is worthwhile taking the time to practice and use them accurately because they can also be used in speaking tests such as IELTS or Cambridge B2 First or C1 Advanced.
Kinds of Noun Phrase
Simple Noun Phrase: these may only have the main noun with an article and an adjective.
Example
| An | expensive | car |
| determiner | adjective | main noun |
Determiners – a group of words that includes:
Articles – a, an, the
Demonstratives – e.g. this, that, etc
Possessives – e.g. my, your, etc
Numbers – e.g. one,two, etc.
Quantifiers, such as some, any, much, more, etc are often included too
Complex Noun Phrase: a number of words may surround the main noun, which constitutes a complex noun phrase.
| An | expensive | car | with | a | finely | tuned | engine |
| determiner | adjective | main noun | preposition | determiner | adverb | adjective | noun |
Using complex noun phrases is needed if your goal is to get a higher band score in IELTS Writing Task 2, but you must also aim to avoid errors when using them.
How to create complex noun phrases
Noun phrases consist of a group of words that go before or after a main noun. They modify the noun, giving more information about it.
Words going before the main noun is called pre-modification, while post-modification is when the words come after the main noun.
| Pre-modification: | an ambitious student |
| Pre- and post-modification: | an ambitious student with contacts |
| Post-modification: | countries with large armies |
| Pre- and post-modification: | rich countries with large armies |
When using a noun phrase, it is crucial to think about the verb that comes after it to ensure subject verb agreement, so the main noun in the noun phrase has to be identified.
an ambitious student is
countries with large armies are
an ambitious student with contacts is
rich countries with large armies were
Subject-verb agreement errors are one of the most common errors IELTS test taker make in their Writing Task 2 test, so it is essential that you identify the main noun so you can use the correct form of the verb.
Ways of Modifying words
Here are some common examples of words used to modify nouns in noun phrases. (s) after the word means singular, while (p) means plural.
Pre-modification is usually made up of: determiners, quantifiers, adjectives, participles, other nouns.
Determiners
a local football game (s)
the importance of culture (s)
your career (s)
those methods (p)
Quantifiers
a significant number of people (p)
a high volume of traffic (s)
a range of skills (p)
a lot of businesses (p)
not all companies (p)
most employers (p)
very few students (p)
Adjectives
a charismatic, dynamic leader (s)
reliable workers (p)
a large, nuclear weapons facility (s)
Participles
Participles are adjectives created from verbs and there are two types.
Type 1 = Verb + -ing. Type 2 = Verb + -ed if the verb is regular
Examples:
| Verb | Verb+ing | Verb+ed |
| Publish | a publishing company | a published author |
| Exhaust | an exhausting job | exhausted nurses |
| Advance | an advancing army | advanced technology |
| Delay | a delaying tactic | a delayed train |
The underlined words in these four examples do not show the tense in any way and have very different meanings.
(s) = singular / (p) = plural
boring lessons (p)
a bored youngster (s)
a frightening experience (s)
a frightened girl (s)
Nouns
finance management (s)
a state school (s)
the traffic police (p)
a children’s author (s)
The main noun can be modified by two or more nouns.
For example:
healthcare worker safety (s)
air traffic controller jobs (p)
language skills development theories (p)
Prepositional phrases
a person with a big social media presence (s)
countries with large financial resources (p)
libraries with good online resources (p)
people with good computer skills (p)
films with an unnecessary amount of violence (p)
countries without enough resources (p)
people on a low income (p)
schools in rural areas (p)
people at a certain stage of life (p)
visitors from abroad (p)
Relative clauses
a person who speaks two languages (s)
a company that offers housing to employees (s)
people who speak more than one language (p)
a company that hires local staff (s)
Non-finite clauses
people working long hours (p)
jobs involving many responsibilities (p)
sports centres offering free lessons (p)
companies employing many staff (p)
a restaurant offering vegetarian meals (s)
a person employed by an international company (s)
countries geared towards the tourist industry (p)
children given an unhealthy diet (p)
books written by women for women (p)
Examples of Noun Phrases in Sentences
A noun phrase can make up the subject or object of a sentence. Their length can vary, as shown below:
People with a big income are obviously successful in life.
Traditional cultures and lifestyles should be preserved as much as possible.
The range of a person’s work experience can be more important than qualifications.
Companies that pay no attention to recycling and waste disposal should be held accountable.
Many people do not understand the importance of recycling plastics.
New laws will help tackle companies that do not follow recycling procedures.
Parents feeding their children junk food are not thinking about the health impact that it can have.
Companies giving their employees staff uniforms encourage equality.
We should admire countries that take care of vulnerable members of society.