Unit 4: Noun Phrases
NOUN PHRASES
Noun phrases may be easier for you to begin using and are the most common phrase you will encounter and use (even in other languages!). In fact, you’ve already read about and worked with some noun phrases, prepositional phrases, so let’s start there.
Prepositional Phrases:
Prepositional phrases contain a preposition and a noun. “In the writing center” is an example of a prepositional phrase.
Take the sentence we looked at above:
- The tutor, who was in the writing center, discussed the paper with the student.
We can change the clause, who was in the writing center, into a phrase by removing the modifier who and, most importantly, the verb was. We now have the phrase in the writing center. Let’s place it back in the sentence:
- The tutor, in the writing center, discussed the paper with the student.
The crucial difference is that we no longer use a verb (was). Therefore, we have a simple prepositional phrase.
Look at a few more examples:
- From my vantage point, I can see two eagles.
- Upon further review, I think you deserve an “A.”
- You’ll find the door down the hall and to the left. (two prepositional phrases)
Prepositional phrases--made up minimally of a preposition + noun or a pronoun--are the hardest working modifiers in the English language. They can act like nouns, like adjectives, and like adverbs. Because they are so robust, they can modify nouns or verbs in sentences. Prepositional phrases can add description and detail to your writing.
Here is a list of the most commonly used prepositions in English:
| aboard about above according to across after against along amid among around as at atop because of before behind below beneath beside |
besides between beyond but (meaning except) by concerning considering despite down during except excepting excluding following for from in inside in spite of instead of |
into like minus near of off on on account of onto opposite out out of outside over past per plus round save |
since than through throughout to toward towards under underneath unlike until up upon versus via with within without |
Absolute Phrases:
Absolute phrases are an important type of noun phrase to know when writing because absolute phrases modify an entire clause. Many phrases modify a specific word, but absolute phrases describe the whole clause that follows or comes before it. This is helpful to you because you may like a sentence that you have written, but you want to add more detail. You can place an absolute phrase before or after the sentence as it’s written.
Here are some examples:
- Diamonds sparkling in the sunlight, the ring made its way up the wedding aisle.
- She fought off the zombies one by one, hands grabbing and punching each of them as they advanced.
- His feet rooted to the spot, the hunter listened for sounds of movement in the forest.
Absolute phrases are sometimes easily added to your sentences because you need not change the root sentence that you have written. Let’s say you started with the following sentence:
- The clerk monitored the customers.
But we can easily add to the sentence using the parts of speech that you learned in Unit 2.
- The busy clerk monitored the customers in the self-checkout area at the hardware store.
With an absolute phrase, we can add even more to this simple sentence.
- His eyes watching every scanner, the busy clerk monitored the customers in the self-checkout area at the hardware store.
The absolute phrase describes the whole sentence and provides detail about how the clerk monitors the customers. Absolute phrases are especially helpful when writing about something you have observed closely. As you may have already noticed, absolute phrases are considered a type of noun phrase because they contain at least a noun and a participle. A participle, as you learned in Unit 3, is the –ing (present participle) or –ed (past participle) form of a verb. In most cases, you will also easily be able to add modifiers and/or objects to your absolute phrases.
- Diamonds (noun) sparkling (verb - present participle) in the sunlight (modifier, in this case a prepositional phrase)
- hands (noun) grabbing and punching (verbs – present participle) each (object) of them as they advanced (modifiers)
- Feet (noun) rooted (verb – past participle) to the spot (modifier)
- His eyes (noun) watching(verb – Present participle) every scanner (object)
Absolute phrases will be one of the most helpful phrases as you develop as a writer because they are so easy to add to well-crafted sentences.
Appositive Phrases:
Appositive Phrases add detail and modify a noun. Apposition means to place two things next to each other for explanation. With Appositive Phrases, you add layers of meaning to a sentence.
An appositive may be one word that modifies another noun (“My cousin Dan lives next door.”).
Like absolute phrases, you may add these to a sentence that you’ve already written. Appositive phrases can be added to the beginning or end of a sentence like absolute phrases, but they can also be added within sentences as well. Instead of containing a noun and a verb/participle, Appositive Phrases will consist of nouns and modifiers.
Here are some examples:
- His car, a rusty 1982 Ford Mustang, chugged down the road like an old mule.
- A usually calm and mild-mannered employee, Anthony erupted with a volley of barely intelligible words.
- The critic praised the lead actor, a teenager from India.
When using appositive phrases in the middle of a sentence note that you must use two commas, one before the phrase and one at the end, to separate it from the main sentence. We can add subordinate clauses to appositive phrases, as in the following example:
- The critic praised the lead actor, a teenager from India who began working at the theater and became an understudy with no formal training.
You must always place an appositive as close to the noun it is modifying as possible. Otherwise, you may end up modifying a noun you did not intend.