NOUN PHRASE

PRE MODIFIERS HEAD POST

DETERMINERS ADJECTIVES
NOUN MODIFIERS
PRE CENTRAL POST (O/S/A*/S/C/O/M/P)
…the first New Italian race bike That/which I
bought…
… few brave men
…some of the Interesting, new books on the shelf…
..the handsome, tall, Peruvian boy in the class…
…half (of) the students in this class…
…one of those handsome, American guys at the party
these two cute, little puppies that I saw
yesterday
…both of those little children
All of my ten fingers
the last two little pieces of apple pie
…half of these eight big, red apples in the bucket on
the table that
you bought
yesterday from
the street
 market
…a lot of these twelve broken cars parked in the
garage…
running on the
road
…all of the three small cats in my house...
...half of his few real friends that I met…
… Anthony’s first French friend that I met in the
theater…
The first person I met here was from Arizona. (Subject of a sentence)
The first person I met here lives in that house. (Subject of a sentence)
You are the first person I met here (Subject complement)
I like the first person I met here (Object of the verb)
Remember: adjectives can appear before a noun.
Tall boy / short man / beautiful girl
When this happens, you say that the adjectives are in attributive position.
Most adjectives can be in attributive position and predicative position.
Attributive: I saw a red dress.
Predicative: This dress is red. ------------
Warning! Some adjectives ARE ONLY PREDICATIVE.
AWAKE, ALIVE, ABLE, ASLEEP, ALONE, ILL…
I am ill. I am an ill person.
Jake is 98 and he is still alive. Jake is an alive man.
I feel ALIVE. I feel an alive person. (“alive” is a predicative adjective; it never
precedes a noun)
Jack is a capable person. Jack is an able person.
He is alone. He is an alone person. He is a lonely person.
opinion size Age* shape color origin material purpose Head
(condition) noun
beautiful small new round brown Italian wooden dining table
long muddy winding river
beautiful hot sunny day

sweet fast
fresh clean