Noun Phrase: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what a noun phrase is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on noun phrase, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What is a noun phrase?

According to Your Dictionary, a noun phrase is a group of words that functions as a noun. These act as subjects, objects or prepositional objects in a sentence. They can also  work in a sentence as adjectives, participles, infinitives, and prepositional or absolute phrases. These are also just nouns with modifiers, and can be used to add detail to an noun. The modifier can come before or after the noun, and can be an article, possessive noun, possessive pronoun, adjective, participle, prepositional phrases, adjective clauses, participle phrases, and infinitives. A noun phrase can be used as a subject, direct object, indirect object, prepositional object, participle, with a to-infinitive, as a prepositional phrase, as an absolute phrase, and more. Many parts of speech can be used as phrases, such as verb phrases, adjectival phrases, and adverbial phrases/adjective phrases.

There are many types of nouns, which name persons, places, things, or ideas. There are common nouns, proper nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, countable nouns, uncountable nouns, and collective nouns. While nouns generally function as subjects and objects, they can also modify other words by being possessive or an appositive.

Examples of noun phrases are ones that fulfill the arguments of the main clause predicate. When the use of noun phrase is the subject of a verb or object of a verb, ensure subject-verb agreement with the head noun. This string of words is one of many types of phrases including gerund phrases, infinitive phrases, a noun clause, a complement, and other useful phrases. 

Many different languages also contain words that mean noun. You may notice that some of these translations of noun look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of noun is provided by Word Sense

  •  Telugu: నామవాచకము‎
  •  Azeri: isim‎, ad‎
  •  Maltese: nom‎
  •  Erzya: лемвал‎
  •  Kazakh: зат есім‎
  •  Nynorsk: substantiv‎ (neut.)
  •  Arabic: اِسْم الذَّات‎, اِسْم‎ (masc.)
  •  Icelandic: nafnorð‎ (neut.) (abbrev. “no.”)
  •  Bishnupriya Manipuri:
  •  Ewe: nuŋkɔ‎
  •  Czech: podstatné jméno‎ (neut.), substantivum‎ (neut.)
  •  Welsh: enw‎ (masc.)
  •  Slovene: samostalnik‎ (masc.)
  •  Southern Altai: адалгыш‎
  •  Japanese: 名詞‎ (めいし, meishí)
  •  Cantonese: 名詞‎, 名词‎ (ming4 ci4)
  •  Hindi: संज्ञा‎ (masc.)
  •  Hebrew: שמא‎
  •  Gujarati: સંજ્ઞા‎
  •  Scottish Gaelic: ainmear‎ (masc.)
  •  Bulgarian: съществи́телно и́ме‎ (neut.)
  •  Tatar: исем‎
  •  Interlingua: substantivo‎
  •  Swahili: nomino‎, jina‎
  •  Hawaiian: haʻiinoa‎
  •  Mandarin: 名詞‎, 名词‎ (míngcí)
  •  Turkmen: at‎
  •  Belarusian: назо́ўнік‎ (masc.)
  •  Scots: noun‎
  •  Macedonian: именка‎ (fem.)
  •  Romanian: substantiv‎ (neut.)
  •  Kashubian: jistnik‎ (masc.)
  •  Persian: اسم‎ (esm)
  •  Greenlandic: taggit‎
  •  Ido: substantivo‎
  •  Tamil: பெயர்ச்சொல்‎
  •  Mongolian: нэр үг‎
  •  Kyrgyz: зат атооч‎
  •  Estonian: nimisõna‎
  •  Portuguese: substantivo‎ (masc.)
  •  Malayalam: നാമം‎
  •  Kannada: ನಾಮಪದ‎
  •  Khmer: នាម‎ (niem)
  •  Danish:substantiv‎ (neut.), navneord‎ (neut.)
  •  Bashkir: исем‎
  •  Latin: nomen positivum‎ (neut.), nomen substantivum‎ (neut.), substantivum nomen‎ (neut.), substantivum‎ (neut.)
  •  Navajo: yízhí‎
  •  Occitan: nom‎ (masc.)
  •  Hebrew: שֵׁם עֶצֶם‎
  •  Swedish: substantiv‎ (neut.)
  •  West Frisian: haadwurd‎ (neut.)
  •  Lao: ຄຳນາມ‎
  •  Yiddish: סובסטאַנטיוו‎ (neut.)
  •  Rwanda-Rundi:
  •  Italian: sostantivo‎ (masc.), nome sostantivo‎ (masc.)
  •  Bengali: বিশেষ্য‎
  •  Zulu: ibizo‎ (noun class 5) (noun class 6)
  •  Catalan: substantiu‎ (masc.)
  •  Lower Sorbian: substantiw‎ (masc.)
  •  Tibetan: མིང་ཚིག‎
  •  Limburgish: zèlfstenjig naamwaord‎ (neut.), zèlfstenjig naomswaordj‎ (neut.), zèlfwaordj‎, zèlfswaordj‎, söbstantief‎
  •  Tok Pisin: nem bilong samting‎
  •  Oriya: ବିଶେଷ୍ୟ‎
  •  Indonesian: kata benda‎, nomina‎, kata nama‎, substantif‎
  •  Tajik: исм‎
  •  Egyptian Arabic: اسم‎
  •  Upper Sorbian: substantiw‎ (masc.)
  •  Korean: 명사‎ (名詞‎)
  •  Faroese: navnorð‎ (neut.)
  •  Cornish: hanow‎ (masc.)
  •  Turkish: isim‎, ad‎
  •  Hausa: suna‎
  •  Urdu: اسم‎ (ism), سنجنا‎
  •  Min Nan: 名詞‎, 名词‎ (bêng-sû)
  •  Albanian: emër‎
  •  Galician: substantivo‎
  •  Afrikaans: selfstandige naamwoord‎
  •  Hungarian: főnév‎
  •  Sicilian: sustantivu‎
  •  Crimean Tatar: ad‎, isim‎
  •  Bokmål: substantiv‎ (neut.)
  •  Buryat: юумэнэй нэрэ‎
  •  Roman: imenica‎ (fem.)
  •  German: Dingwort‎ (neut.), Gegenstandswort‎ (neut.) (ambiguous), Hauptnennwort‎ (neut.), Hauptwort‎ (neut.), Selbstwort‎, Substantiv‎ (neut.), Alemannic: Substantiv‎ (neut.)
  •  Ukrainian: іме́нник‎ (masc.)
  •  Marathi: नाम‎
  •  Basque: substantibo‎, izen‎
  •  Finnish: substantiivi‎, nimisana‎
  •  Chechen: цӏердош‎
  •  Sorani: ناو‎
  •  Greek: ουσιαστικό‎ (neut.)
  •  Pashto: اسم‎
  •  Swazi: libito‎
  •  Cyrillic: именица‎
  •  Interlingue: substantive‎, nómine‎
  •  Armenian: գոյական‎
  •  Georgian: არსებითი სახელი‎
  •  Esperanto: substantivo‎
  •  Amharic: ስም‎
  •  Franco-Provençal:
  •  Cherokee: ᏚᏙᎥᎢ‎ (dudovi)
  •  Walloon: no‎ (masc.), kimon no‎ (masc.), sustantif‎ (masc.)
  •  Latvian: lietvārds‎ (masc.), substantīvs‎ (masc.)
  •  Irish: ainmfhocal‎ (masc.)
  •  Breton: anv-kadarn‎
  •  Malay: kata nama‎, kata bilang‎
  •  Syriac: ܫܡܐ‎
  •  French: nom‎ (masc.), nom substantif‎ (masc.), substantif‎ (masc.)
  •  Chuvash: япала ячĕ‎
  •  Maori: kupuingoa‎
  •  Tagalog: pangngalan‎
  •  Northern Sami: substantiiva‎
  •  Lithuanian: daiktavardis‎
  •  Asturian: sustantivu‎
  •  Vietnamese: danh từ‎ (名詞‎)
  •  Shor: небелик‎ (nebelik)
  •  Burmese: နာမ်‎
  •  Luxembourgish: Substantiv‎ (neut.)
  •  Russian: и́мя существи́тельное‎ (neut.), существи́тельное‎ (neut.)
  •  Volapük: subsat‎
  •  Quechua: sutirimana‎
  •  Dutch: zelfstandig naamwoord‎ (neut.)
  •  Uzbek: ot‎, ism‎
  •  Sinhalese: නාම පදය‎, නාමය‎
  •  Slovak: podstatné meno‎ (neut.), substantívum‎ (neut.)
  •  Spanish: nombre substantivo‎ (masc.), nombre sustantivo‎ (masc.), substantivo‎ (masc.), sustantivo‎ (masc.), (Venezuela) nombre‎ (masc.)
  •  Low German: Substantiv‎
  •  Polish: rzeczownik‎ (m-in)
  •  Novial: substantive‎
  •  Thai: นาม‎, คำนาม‎

What are other literary techniques and devices?

There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you. 

  •  head
  •  progressive
  •  unmarked genitive
  •  interjection
  •  non-finite
  •  nominal relative | nominal relative clause
  •  combination
  •  perfect
  •  participial adjective
  •  concrete
  •  prefix
  •  phrase (phr.)
  •  subject
  •  verb (v.)
  •  impersonal (impers.)
  •  gerund
  •  singular
  •  parasynthetic
  •  intransitive
  •  suffix
  •  gender
  •  demonstrative
  •  count noun
  •  direct object
  •  adverb (adv.)
  •  to-infinitive
  •  nominative
  •  vocative
  •  auxiliary verb | auxiliary
  •  pleonasm | pleonastic
  •  relative
  •  main clause
  •  agree | agreement
  •  intensifier
  •  stem
  •  main verb
  •  active
  •  modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
  •  anticipatory
  •  causative
  •  preposition (prep.)
  •  combining form (comb. form)
  •  determiner
  •  direct question
  •  subjective
  •  cataphoric
  •  personal pronoun
  •  prepositional phrase
  •  sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
  •  conjunction (conj.)
  •  transitive
  •  genitive
  •  agent noun
  •  part of speech
  •  imperative (imper.)
  •  abstract
  •  direct speech
  •  mood
  •  indirect object
  •  tense
  •  dative
  •  base form
  •  apodosis and protasis
  •  optative
  •  case
  •  possessive pronoun
  •  neuter
  •  past tense
  •  adverbial | adverbially
  •  subordinate clause
  •  quasi-
  •  masculine
  •  second person
  •  accusative
  •  pronoun (pron.)
  •  construction
  •  predicative
  •  complementary
  •  protasis
  •  compound | compounding
  •  parenthetical | parenthetically
  •  that-clause
  •  present tense
  •  apposition
  •  pro-form
  •  prepositional passive
  •  collective noun
  •  object | direct object | indirect object
  •  past participle
  •  person
  •  zero
  •  copular verb | copula
  •  antecedent
  •  possessive
  •  dual
  •  verbal noun
  •  indicative
  •  modify | modifier
  •  prepositional object
  •  common noun
  •  superlative
  •  postmodify | postmodifier
  •  filler
  •  ellipsis | elliptical
  •  premodify | premodifier
  •  feminine
  •  reflexive
  •  dependent clause
  •  finite
  •  indirect speech
  •  cognate object
  •  non-referential
  •  morpheme
  •  indirect question
  •  locative
  •  present participle
  •  third-person
  •  absolute (absol.)
  •  inflection | inflected | inflectional
  •  positive
  •  double object
  •  passive
  •  declarative
  •  phrasal verb
  •  collocation | collocate
  •  definite article
  •  conditional
  •  instrumental
  •  number
  •  attributive
  •  article
  •  plural
  •  mass noun
  •  passive infinitive
  •  indefinite
  •  noun phrase
  •  first person
  •  element
  •  adjective
  •  special use
  •  comparative
  •  proper noun | proper name
  •  periphrasis | periphrastic
  •  participle | past participle | present participle
  •  appositive
  •  infinitive
  •  indirect passive
  •  possessive adjective
  •  anaphoric
  •  complement
  •  bare infinitive
  •  construed (const., constr.)
  •  subjunctive
  •  similative
  •  noun (n.)
  •  clause
  •  interrogative
  •  simple
  •  objective

Overall, like an indefinite pronoun, object of the preposition, a subject pronoun, auxiliary verbs, the constituent of a sentence, a relative pronoun, and appositive phrases, the a noun phrase has an important grammatical function in English grammar in modern English. This phrase functions as a noun. 

Sources:

  1. Glossary of grammatical terms | OED 
  2. Noun Phrases: Definition, Purpose and Use | Your Dictionary 
  3. noun: meaning, origin, translation | Word Sense