Noun Phrases 2

Noun Phrases
Noun + Noun is used when referring to:
What things are made of
A silver spoon
A gold necklace
A metal door
A stone wall
Products from dead animals
A lamp chop
A leopard skin
A chicken sandwich
Things that occur or repeat regularly
The evening shift
A Saturday job
Daytime television

Duration (the first noun is singular and hyphenated)

A five-hour
hour delay
A twenty-minute speech
A two-week holiday
A three-hour walk
Containers
A beer bottle
A tea cup
A soda can

Commonly accepted compound nouns. (Things existing on their

own)
A shop window
A door handle
A phone cover
 Noun Phrases 3

Possession by a particular person or animal

Adjectives can be placed between the nouns

new toys
Things used by people or animals in general

Adjectives cannot be placed between the nouns.

monthly magazine
A monthly
An action done to or by a particular person

The resignation of several members of the committee

Products from living animals

Things that occurred at a specific time.

A
 Noun Phrases 4

Duration (As an alternative to noun + noun structure) (In this case

there is no hyphen and the first noun can be plural)

For containers and their contents

A bottle of beer
A cup of tea
A can of soda
beginning,

The top of the picture

The back of the book
The middle of the week
To describe the characteristics of a person or a thing
A man of average build
A place of great beauty
A ring of little value
When no commonly accepted compound noun exists
A book about parks
The roof of the house
The leg of the desk
A woman on the radio
Relating a part to an inanimate whole
The rest of the people
The majority of voters
A quarter of the committee
In a large number of collocations
A source of inspiration
An invasion of privacy
 Noun Phrases 5

possible.
Madonna
The reputation of Madonna is international.
The dog
The name of the dog was Jackson.
The Queen
The arrival of the queen was delayed.
The lady
The car of the lady
However, the structure of a sentence will sometimes determine the

have to stand next to other words qualifying it.

The reputation of Madonna, the American singer, is internati
international.
, is international.
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Exercises
1. Correct the following sentences if they are wrong.
a: We broke quite a few cups of coffee at the party.
b: Shall we have for dinner?
c: This skirt is made of pure .
d: I caught my shirt on the door handle.
e: I kicked the ball onto our house roof.
f: I read it in ewspaper.
g: I always buy a .
h: I get a year.
i: on marketing.
j: Management has announced a member of staff from the linguistic
.
k: I sometimes want to bang my head against a wall made of brick.
l: Police are looking for an average height man in his twenties.
m: We will have some in stick after the January
sales.