1. A phrase is a group of words. It is longer than one word but shorter than a complete sentence (or paragraph). A noun phrase (NP) is a group of words around a head noun. A head noun is the most important noun in the phrase. Here are some examples.
a. The blue car didn’t stop at the red light.
=Two NPs: ‘The blue car‘ and ‘the red light‘.
The head nouns are ‘car’ and ‘light’
b. Her English teacher is from northern England.
=Two NPs: ‘Her English teacher‘ and ‘northern England‘.
The head nouns are ‘teacher’ and ‘England’
c. Sally’s cat chased her friend’s dog!
=Two NPs: ‘Sally’s cat‘ and ‘her friend’s dog‘
The head nouns are ‘cat’ and ‘dog’
2. How many NPs does this sentence have? What are they? What are the head nouns?
The book that I borrowed yesterday was from the school library.
3. Now look at this extract from The Cook (Chapter 1). Can you find some NPs?
EFLshorts 