Nouns and noun phrases

A noun is the name of a person, object or place. 

If the noun refers to an individual person, object or place and identifies it as distinct from any other, it is called a proper noun and will start with a capital letter.  For example, Fred Smith, Buckingham Palace, France.

Nouns used as a general name are called common nouns.  For example, table, field, cat, castle, apple.

We use the term noun for these single words and sometimes they are used as a single word to fill a sentence element slot in the sentence:

Andy won Wimbledon.

I like apples.

Art is enjoyable.

It is more usual for nouns to appear in sentences as part of a phrase, i.e. two words or more, working together to fill a slot in a sentence.  Let’s have a look at examples of how we can combine a noun with other words to make a noun phrase.

an apple

the apple

the green apple

the small, green apple

the small, green apple with spotty skin

the small, green apple which I picked from the tree

Nouns and noun phrases can be used in different places in sentences, but they usually fill the subject and object slots.

Over the primary years, your child will be taught how to expand noun phrases in the ways exemplified above.  You will notice that some words can be placed before the main noun in the phrase (apple); sometimes words can be placed after the main noun.  You can link below to information for how nouns and noun phrases are developed in each year group, along with the new National Curriculum requirements and terminology.  It will be useful to look at all year groups leading up to your child’s current year so you have a complete picture of what they should know.

Nouns and noun phrases in Year 1

Nounsand noun phrases in Year 2

Nouns and noun phrases in Year 3

Nouns and noun phrases in Year 4

Nouns and noun phrases in Year 5

Nouns and noun phrases in Year 6

When learning about nouns and noun phrases, children will also need to understand that sometimes we need to replace these with pronouns to avoid repetition in our writing.

Words, phrases and clauses filling sentence element positions

When we looked at sentence/clause elements, we saw that these could be placed in certain positions or slots to create a sentence.  Sometimes these slots will be filled by one word, often by phrases.

        S (subject slot)         V (verb slot)       O (object slot)           A (adverbial slot)

              Merlin                    followed                 Arthur                        carefully.

The wrinkled, old wizard  was following    the crown prince          into the forest.

In the first sentence, each sentence element slot is filled by one word; in the second sentence, each slot is filled by a phrase.  We can define a phrase as a group of words, working together to fill a sentence element slot.

The above two sentences are simple, or single clause, constructions.  A single clause contains a minimum of a subject and verb, but can be quite a long structure with object and adverbial positions also filled.  It will only have one verb slot filled.

SV                Merlin shouted

SVO             Arthur raised Excalibur.

ASVOA          At that moment, Arthur raised Excalibur above his head.

AASVOA       That evening, cautiously, Merlin followed Arthur into the forest.

However sometimes a sentence element slot is filled by another clause, which contains its own verb:

SVO             Arthur, who was heir to the throne, welcomed the visitors.

The subject position in this sentence is filled by another clause, containing its own verb. 

Sentences usually contain a mix of words, phrases and clauses filling the sentence element slots. These terms occur in many of the different areas of grammar and we will revisit them often in relevant posts.

Sentence elements: the basic building blocks of sentences

To build a sentence, we need the basic building blocks of grammar and we need to put them in the correct order.  These basic building blocks are often called the sentence or clause elements:

• S – subject   (This position or slot in a sentence is usually filled by a noun or noun phrase.)
• V – verb  (This position or slot in a sentence is filled by a verb or verb phrase.)
• O – object   (This position or slot in a sentence is usually filled by a noun or noun phrase.)
• A – adverbial  (This position or slot in a sentence is usually filled by an adverb or adverbial phrase, often giving information about where, when or how the verb in the sentence takes place.  As a very flexible sentence element, adverbials can be added in various positions in these constructions.)
• C – complement  (In primary education, this is not required terminology.  Children will often use adjectives or nouns/noun phrases in the complement position.  For information beyond the curriculum, click here.)

Examples of how these elements can be used in sentence constructions are:

SV                The sword vanished.

SVO             The sword cut the tree.

SVC             The sword was heavy. 

ASVO           With one strike, the sword cut the tree.

SVA              The sword lay on the ground.

ASVOA          At that moment, the knight raised the sword above his head.

For more information about words, phrases and clauses which can fill these sentence element positions or slots, click here.