Noun phrases are phrases that behave like a noun. But before getting started with what is a noun phrase for kids, we will see a couple of basic definitions that will help us understand noun phrases better.
What is a Noun for Kids?
A noun is the name of a specific object, place, or living being. In other words, a noun is a word that is used to identify or specify a class of objects, places, people, or a name to a particular one of these.
Example: Your name, man, woman, teacher, India, home, office, city, state, country, car, pencil, banana, dog, monkey, and any object, place, or person that has a name of its own.
What is a Phrase?
A phrase is a small group of few words put together that forms a meaningful unit.
After reading the definition of the phrase, you might feel that phrases and sentences are both the same, but they are not.
A phrase in itself cannot convey the whole meaning as it lacks a verb or subject, but sentences are a long group of words that convey a complete thought. Phrases are a part of sentences.
What is a Noun Phrases for kids?
Noun Phrases are a group of words that contain a noun but don’t contain a verb. A noun phrase usually contains a noun and a group of words that describe the noun.
Noun Phrases Explained
Let us now look at a few noun phrase examples.
#1. That new black mobile is mine
In this sentence, “mobile” is the noun, whereas the other words describe the noun. ‘That new black mobile’ is a noun phrase.
#2. The truck on the road sells a variety of fresh fruits.
In this sentence, there are two noun phrases. The first one is “truck on the road,” and the noun phrase is “variety of fresh fruits.” Both these noun phrases contain nouns and the words that describe them.
Structure of Noun Phrases
The basic structure of Noun Phrases are divided into two types:
#1. Premodifiers
#2. Postmodifiers
Premodifiers
As the word “pre” suggests, when the explanation of the noun comes before the actual noun word in the noun phrases, they are called premodifiers.
Noun Phrases with premodifiers include:
#. Determiners
Example: Those Mangoes are very cheap.
#. Quantifiers
Example: I’ve visited a lot of countries
#. Numbers
Example: My sister has two crayon boxes.
#. Adjectives
Example: I love vintage cars.
All the underlined words describe their respective premodifiers. All of them are before the nouns, which makes them premodifiers.
Postmodifiers
Noun phrases are known to be “postmodifiers” if the explanation comes after naming in the noun phrase.
Postmodifers often include:
#. Prepositional phrases
A prepositional phrase is often used as a noun with prepositions like “in”, “on”, “at”, “to”.
Example: The girl in the pink dress
In the above example, “in the pink frock” explains how to identify the noun “girl” using prepositions.
#. -ing phrases
Example: The woman walking near the pool.
In this sentence, the noun “woman” is described used the postmodifier -ing word, i.e, “walking”
#. Relative clauses
Example: The woman we met at the school yesterday.
The noun “woman” is explained with relative clauses.
#. That- clauses
Example: I believe John that he is innocent.
In this sentence, that clause is used as a postmodifier to the noun John.
Expanded Noun Phrases
In some cases, nouns in some noun phrases are given an elaborated explanation before or after them which are called “Expanded Noun Phrases.”
Example:
I ran in the Sun
In the above sentence, the noun phrase is ‘the sun’. To turn this sentence into an expanded noun phrase, we can include an adjective that can modify the noun ‘Sun’. For example:
I ran in the Hot Sun
Now we have an expanded noun phrase which is ‘the hot sun’.
The structure of expanded noun phrase is explained below:
#. An article: The
#. An adjective(s): Hot
#. A noun: Sun
The expansion can also be done after the noun.
Found it Helpful?
We hope that this explanation has helped you understand noun phrases better. Collect various sentences and practise noun phrases for a better understanding of this topic.
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