Noun Phrase

Noun Phrase

Recognize a noun phrase when you see one.

A noun phrase includes a noun—a person, place, or thing—and the modifiers which distinguish it.

You can find the noun dog in a sentence, for example, but you don't know which canine the writer means until you consider the entire noun phrase: that dog, Aunt Audrey's dog, the dog on the sofa, the neighbor's dog that chases our cat, the dog digging in the new flower bed.

Modifiers can come before or after the noun. Ones that come before might include articles, possessive nouns, possessive pronouns,adjectives, and/or participles.

Articles: a dog, the dog

Possessive nouns: Aunt Audrey's dog, the neighbor'sdog, the police officer's dog

Possessive pronouns: Our dog, her dog, their dog

Adjectives: That dog, the big dog, the spotted dog

Participles: The drooling dog, the barking dog, the well trained dog

Modifiers that come after the noun might include prepositional phrases, adjective clauses, participle phrases, and/or infinitives.

Prepositional phrases: A dog on the loose, the dog in the front seat, the dog behind the fence

Adjective clauses: The dog that chases cats, the dogthat looks lost, the dog that won the championship

Participle phrases: The dog whining for a treat, the dog clipped at the grooming salon, the dog walked daily

Infinitives: The dog to catch, the dog to train, the dogto adopt

Less frequently, a noun phrase will have a pronoun as its base—a word like we, everybody, etc.—and the modifiers which distinguish it. Read these examples:

We who were green with envy

We = subject pronoun; who were green with envy = modifier.

Someone intelligent

Someone = indefinite pronoun; intelligent = modifier.

No one important

No one = indefinite pronoun; important = modifier.

Asking Information

We use question words to ask certain types of questions (question word questions). We often refer to them as WH words because they include the letters WH (for example WHy, HoW).

Question Word	Function	Example
what	asking for information about something	What is your name?
	asking for repetition or confirmation	What? I can't hear you. You did what?
what...for	asking for a reason, asking why	What did you do that for?
when	asking about time	When did he leave?
where	asking in or at what place or position	Where do they live?
which	asking about choice	Which colour do you want?
who	asking what or which person or people (subject)	Who opened the door?
whom	asking what or which person or people (object)	Whom did you see?
whose	asking about ownership	Whose are these keys? Whose turn is it?
why	asking for reason, asking what...for	Why do you say that?
why don't	making a suggestion	Why don't I help you?
how	asking about manner	How does this work?
	asking about condition or quality	How was your exam?
how + adj/adv	asking about extent or degree	see examples below
how far	distance	How far is Pattaya from Hongkong?
how long	length (time or space)	How long will it take?
how many	quantity (countable)	How many cars are there?
how much	quantity (uncountable)	How much money do you have?
how old	age	How old are you?
how come (informal)	asking for reason, asking why	How come I can't see her?