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​Effectively using complex noun phrases makes your writing more academic and precise. Articles written by native speakers generally contain a lot of complex noun phrases and so studying these phrases will help you with reading comprehension as well.
This post will:
- …start with the basics of noun phrases.
- …help you to identify post modified noun phrases.
- …give you practice writing complex noun phrases.
The Basics
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The sofa (determiner + noun)
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Fat cat (adjective + noun)
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Our fattest cat (determiner + adjective + noun)
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All the potatoes (quantifier + determiner + noun)
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Both of my recent successes (quantifier + determiner + adjective + noun)
Post Modifying Nouns
Look at the examples of post modified nouns below. The main noun (head) is in bold.
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- The percentage of people in full time work increased steadily.
- People owning their own homes are angry with the new tax.
- Both of the people who I share a flat with are nurses.
- I dislike the idea that public transportation is only for the poor.
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I like anything to do with astronomy.
Each example shows a different structure post modifying the noun in bold. Let’s investigate what they are.
- Prepositional phrases (preposition + noun). Prepositional phrases starting with the preposition ‘of’ are very common in academic writing: the amount of… / the number of … / the percentage of …
- ing-verb phrase
- Relative clause
- 'That' clause (often used to explain, summarize or report)
- To Infinitive (to +verb) This is very common after indefinite pronouns and adverbs
Antique cars, which are bought in SE Asia, are resold in Australia
​The noun ‘cars’ is pre modified with the adjective ‘antique’.
It is post modified with a relative clause (which…bought) and a prepositional clause (in…Asia).
Exercise 1
Choose an option from the drop down box.
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Arrange the sentences by clicking on a word, then clicking again on a gap.
3. | . |
4. | . |
5. | was very dramatic. |
6. | Please buy me . |
If you got all these correct great job. ​To improve your use of complex noun phrases you should:
- Notice how nouns are modified when you are doing reading practice with academic texts written by native speakers.
- Notice how nouns are modified when you are reading example task 1 and 2 responses written by tutors or examiners.
- Try and use complex noun phrases when you write so you become more used to incorporating them into how you communicate.
We hope this has been useful for you. Leave a comment below if you have any questions.
Check out Complex Noun Phrases Quiz 2 for more!