The Noun Group - Courseware - National University of Singapore

By Yang Ying & Janet Chan

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

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Nouns Noun phrases Pronouns

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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.

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Bananas are cheap here. Kate likes fruits. He is not in town. He became Chairman in 2009. A noun/pronoun on its own

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

Article + Noun (a, an, the)

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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

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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

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

Noun with -ing form

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I had to pay a thousand dollars for the damage. Three tall and strong men rushed into the house.

Number + Noun

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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; Everyone Some (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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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http://linguapress.com/grammar/grammar3. htm http://www.eslgold.com/grammar/noun_ver b_phrases.html http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/tta/p hrases/phrases.htm

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