Improve Writing with Noun Phrases

As you know, nouns are naming words.  Some examples are bread, Lucy, car, Spain, happiness.

Noun phrases are groups of words that do the same job as nouns:

brown bread

my friend Lucy

red car

the country called Spain

a feeling of great happiness

Noun phrases can be expanded in lots of ways to add detail and interest to a piece of writing.

We can create expanded noun phrases by adding adjectives to the original noun, like this:

a bear

a brown bear

a hungry brown bear

We can also add a preposition phrase to expand it further, like this:

a hungry brown bear on the hunt for prey

This expanded noun phrase can be used in exactly the same way as a simple noun in a sentence.  Let's look at how:

At dusk, a bear prowled through the woods.

At dusk, a hungry brown bear on the hunt for prey prowled through the woods.

Are you ready to identify some expanded noun phrases?  Let's get started!