By Yang Ying & Janet Chan

What do we mean by a noun group? What can noun groups do in a sentence? What are the various forms of noun groups?

Nouns Noun phrases Pronouns

David smiled. David is a friendly boy. David loves his computer. David bought himself a gift. Nobody could make David angry. The old man died last year.

Bananas are cheap here. Kate likes fruits. He is not in town. He became Chairman in 2009.

A noun/pronoun on its own

Ming is a monkey. The boys were restless. Take an apple, please.

Article + Noun(a, an, the)

We have a peaceful neighborhood here. I don’t like living in a big city. We must learn word combinations, not just

single words. She is good at baking chocolate cakes. Jane’s hand was trembling. The ship’s radio is not working. My dog is very quiet.

Noun phrase

The girl in a blue dress is my niece. You need to think of a way to stop him. I don’t want to talk to the man who insulted

me. The handle of the door suddenly came off. I hated the idea of leaving the child alone at

home. The cover of the book was torn.

Noun with adjectival, adverbial or prepositional phrases

She pointed at the man sitting in the corner. The lady holding a book in her hand is my

aunt.

Noun with -ing form

I had to pay a thousand dollars for the damage.

Three tall and strong men rushed into the house.

Number + Noun

Someone is asking to see you. Everyone is busy at the moment. Each of the members is responsible for

writing one chapter of the book. Some students are very interested in the

course. Some of the books are missing. Some of the rice is gone.

Pronoun: Someone; EveryoneSome (of) + Noun

Identify the noun groups and their forms: I have a fond memory of my grandmother. An increase in salary is always good news to

the workers. I disliked the man who wanted to marry my

sister. My three children are all studying in the

university. Do you see the elderly lady in a pink gown? Some of the visitors are not allowed to enter

the building.

Your son was not willing to join us. Her emails are always short. Some of the food we prepared for the

guests was gone before the guests arrived. Half of the workers are willing to stay

behind to get the job done. I don’t have two hundred dollars on me. The head of the school is a very nice and

friendly lady.

Identify the noun groups in the passage below: Speed-reading courses often claim that an increase in

speed will mean an automatic increase in comprehension. But this claim is simply not true. With difficult material, understanding is likely to fall as rate rises. Speed-reading courses may increase the number of words your eyes take in and "read" per minute. In addition, comprehension may improve while you take such a course. The cause for this, however, is that you tend to concentrate more as you read faster. The best way to increase reading speed and comprehension is to develop reading comprehension skills. Speed will come as you learn how to identify main ideas and go quickly over lesser points and supporting details. Also, speed will come as you learn how to vary your reading rate according to the nature of the material and your purpose in reading.

Speed-reading courses often claim that an increase in speed will mean an automatic increase in comprehension. But this claim is simply not true. With difficult material, understanding is likely to fall as rate rises. Speed-reading courses may increase the number of words your eyes take in and "read" per minute. In addition, comprehension may improve while you take such a course. The cause for this, however, is that you tend to concentrate more as you read faster. The best way to increase reading speed and comprehension is to develop reading comprehension skills. Speed will come as you learn how to identify main ideas and go quickly over lesser points and supporting details. Also, speed will come as you learn how to vary your reading rate according to the nature of the material and your purpose in reading.

Adapted from: ES1000 course materials Langan, J. (2002). Reading and Study Skills

(7th edition, p.580). New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Willis, D. (1991). Collins Cobuild Student’s Grammar: Self study Edition with Answers (p. 4). Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers.

http://linguapress.com/grammar/grammar3.htm

http://www.eslgold.com/grammar/noun_verb_phrases.html

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/tta/phrases/phrases.htm

This PowerPoint file was created by

Yang Ying Janet Chan

Centre for English Language CommunicationNational University of Singapore