“Noun phrase a word or group of words in a sentence that behaves in the same way as a noun, a subject, an object, a complement, or as the object of a preposition.”

How to identify a noun phrase?

1. A noun phrase can consist:

   • A noun, a conjunction, and a noun

   • A gerund and a noun

   • An article, an adjective and a noun

   • An article, a noun and a prepositional phrase

   • A determiner and a noun

     
     

     Hints:-

     1. noun- word that is used to represent a person, place, animal thing or idea

     2. Conjunction- short word that is used to combine two or more words, phrases or clauses.

     3. An article, such as ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ play the role of a modifier.

     4. An adjective is a word that provides extra information about the noun or pronoun.

     5. The term ‘gerund’ refers to words that are formed by the addition of an ‘ing’ to the root verb.

     6. A prepositional phrase is a group of words that has a preposition followed by an object.

     7. A determiner describes a noun and includes demonstrative adjectives such as this, that, these and those.

   
   

2. Example of "a noun, a conjunction, and a noun"

   • Rakesh and Seeta are from Chhattisgarh.

3. Examples of "a gerund, and a noun"

   • Reading books is my favourite pastime. (Noun phrase used as subject)

   • The only thing my brother does not like to do is solving trigonometric equations. (Noun phrase used as object)

4. Example of "an article, an adjective and a noun"

   • The new girl became known to the whole school in just a day. (Noun phrase used as subject)

5. Example of "an article, a noun and a prepositional phrase"

   • The building near the bus stand was taken down in order to expand the roads. (Noun phrase used as subject)

6. Example of "a determiner and a noun"

   • These books belong to Suman. (Noun phrase used as subject)

Example: After shopping around for months, I finally found a reliable, yet affordable, used truck. 

*We can delete the adjective phrase, and the sentence's meaning would stay the same

Examples of adj phrases:-

1. Incorporate comparative and superlative adjectives:

   • They saw only the brightest stars through their telescope.

2. Compound adjectives are often part of adjective phrases:-

   • The playlist was too slow-paced for the crowd that night.

3. Contain adverbs:-

   • It was a deliciously sensational play.

4. Incorporate prepositions:-

   • My old, slow, gas-guzzling minivan finally died. 

Example: The man ran as quickly as possible down the street.

The adverb phrase "as quickly as possible" provide additional context to how the man ran. Again, adverb modifies verb.

Types of adverb phrases:-

1. Adverb phrases of time: Tell us when something happens/how often.

   Example: She goes to school every day.

2. Adverb phrase of place: Tell us where something took place.

   Example: He was dancing on the table.

3. Adverb phrases of manner: Tell us how something happens or is done.

   Example: She was painting very carefully.

4. Adverb phrases of reason: Tell us why something is happening.

   Example: He kissed her head to show his love.

5. Adverb phrases format (3):

   1. Prepositional phrases: A phrase consisting of a preposition and its object.

      Example: I slid my bag across the table.

   2. Infinitive phrases: one that begins with the infinitive form of a verb (containing the word 'to' e.g. 'to swim', 'to run').

      Example: She went to Italy to learn how to cook pasta.

   3. Adverb + intensifier phrases: Intensifier is a word we can place in front of adj or adv to make it stronger.

      Example: He wrote in the card very carefully.

-Most of the time, prepositional phrase modifies a verb or a noun.

At a minimum, a prepositional phrase consists of one preposition and the object it governs. The object can be a noun, a gerund (a verb form ending in -ing that acts as a noun), or a clause.

Example: He arrived in time.

After adding prepositional phrase: He arrived in the nick of time.

There are 2 types of prepositional phrase which are adjectival phrase or adverbial phrase. How to differentiate these two? Easy, if the prepositional phrase acts upon noun(modify noun), we called it adjectival phrase because adjectives modify nouns.

Example: The cat in the middle is the cutest.

If the prepositional phrase act upon verb(modify verb), we say it behaving adverbially because adverbs modify verbs. A prepositional phrase that behaves adverbially is called an adverbial phrase.

Example: To find the person who stole the last cookie, look behind you.

Less frequently, prepositional phrases can function like nouns in a sentence.(When it is placed as subject). Remember, only a noun or a pronoun can be the subject.

Example: After the game will be too late for us to go to dinner.

• Non-finite clause are clauses that do not have a finite verb, meaning they are not limited by tense and do not contain a subject.

• They are subordinate clauses that do not express a complete thought and cannot function as a sentence on their own.

• Non-finite clauses are used to indicate conditions, concession, purposes, reasons, and manners.

• Non-finite clauses can serve five different functions in a sentence:

  1. subject

  2. direct object

  3. object complement

  4. subject complement

  5. adverbial

There are different types of non-finite clause:

1. to-infinitive

2. bare-infinite

Let's dive into explanation for better understanding.

1. to-infinitive:

   • Using to-infinitives in non-finite clauses is a common way to express purpose, intention, or obligation in English.

   • To-infinitive clauses can function as the subject, object, complement, or modifier in a sentence

   • Example: I bought a present for you to apologise. (indicates purpose)

     I have got work to do. (indicates necessity)

2. bare-infinitive:

   • A bare infinitive is a verb form that is used without the word “to”. It is also known as a bare verb or a bare-infinitive. For example, the verb “go” is a bare infinitive, whereas the verb “to go” is a to-infinitive.

     Example: I do go to the store. (go is the bare-infinitive)

   • indicate that someone caused or helped to do something.

   • to show the manner in which something was done.

   • More examples: They helped clean the house.

     I made him forget the ice cream by buying him a cotton candy.

Examples:

Josh had palpitations while addressing the meeting. [Present Participial clause functioning as adverb]

Although groomed in the best possible way, the tycoon’s son struggled to take the business any further. [Past Participial clause functioning as adverb]

Look around and you’ll find many flatterers indulging in insincere praise for selfish motives. [Present Participial clause functioning as adjective]

Steve Jobs, credited with changing the fortune of Apple, made quite a few comebacks in his life. [Past Participial clause functioning as adjective]

Example:

The girl crying out loud is my classmate. (non-finite)

The girl who is crying out loud is my classmate. (finite)

Example: I spoke to Joanne last night. (past)

What is intransitive verb?

Intransitive verb is a verb that do not need a direct object. For example, dance and sleep.

*This sentence pattern uses verbs that are in the base form and doesn’t need supporting information. This means that the thought of the sentence was already completed by the action of the verb.

Example:

1. She swims.

2. The book fell.

3. Evil exists.

The English language has seven basic sentences patterns. Basic sentence patterns are related to the ‘obligatory elements’ in the sentence. These are called basic sentence. Even in a long sentence, you will see that it contains many ‘optional elements’ without which the sentence can still be grammatically complete. If you take these optional elements away, what remains is a basic pattern. For example, look at the following sentence:

1) After a long chase the hunter ultimately killed the lion with a precise gunshot.

You will notice that this long sentence can be reduced to the basic structure:

1)The hunter killed the lion.

The bold sentence is one basic pattern of sentences which consists of the subject, the verb and an object. Other patterns are similarly made of different obligatory elements. In all there are seven such patterns, which are sometimes also called ‘basic clause patterns’.

These seven basic sentence patterns are explained below:

1. SV/SIV

2. SVO

3. SVC

4. SVOC

5. SVOO

6. SVA

7. SVOA

In principle any type of word can be the object. But most commonly nouns take the position of objects.

How to differentiate between nouns as complements (see Pattern 3 ) and nouns as objects??

• Nouns coming after ‘be’ or ‘become’ type verbs are complements, while nouns coming after other types of verbs are usually objects.

• Use the 'test of passivisation". When you change a sentence into a passive form, the noun as the object will become the subject in the passive.

Example: The car(S) hit(V) the truck(O).

This sentence pattern can also be identified as Subject-Linking Verb-Complement (S-LV-C). Linking verbs are the types of verbs that join the subject with an adjective or another noun. Some commonly used linking verbs include be, am, are, is, was, were, and seem.

What is complement?

A complement in grammar is a word, phrase, or clause that provides

additional information about the subject or the object in a sentence.

*The complement in this sentence pattern refers to the subject.

Example: She(S) looks(V) happy(C).

The complement "happy" refers to the subject "She".

Examples:

1. She(S) called(V) the boy(DO) attractive(C).

   The complement attractive refers to the direct object "the boy".

   
   

2. They(S) painted(V) the house(DO) blue(C).

   The complement blue refers to the direct object "the house".

Examples:

1. The woman(S) gives(V) the children(IO) useful gifts(DO).

2. She(S) sent(V) me(IO) some flowers(DO).

Example: Matt eats pizza. (Pizza is the direct object)

Indirect object: An indirect object tells us to whom or for whom an action is done. To understand this concept, we need to come up with a longer sentence.

Example: Matt cuts the pizza(DO) for Nate(IO).

• Pizza is the direct object because it takes the action of the verb.

• Nate is the indirect object because it tells us for whom the action is done.

Example: The cat(S) purred(V) happily(A).

What is the difference between adverbs and adverbials?

Adverb: A type of word or part of speech that modifies or describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb.

Adverbial: A sentence element or functional category. It is a part of a sentence that performs a certain function.

Example: The cat chased the mouse playfully.

(The adverbial ‘playfully’ comes after the object ‘the mouse’).

How to differentiate SVOA and SVOC?

We can detect its difference by looking at the forth element which in this case are adverbial and complement. Let’s take a look in detail:

Adverbial: Extra information about the action, such as how, when, where, or why.

Complement: Extra information that completes the meaning of the sentence.

Examples:

1) The cat chased the mouse playfully.

(The word ‘playfully’ here is an adverbial because it answer the question how the cat chased the mouse).

2) She painted the wall blue.

(The word blue here is a complement because it completes the sentence).

Rules when using direct speech:

1. The first point that you have to remember is that direct speech is the repetition of the exact words of the speaker and so you do not have a choice to add or remove words to and from what is said.

2. For the same reason, these words spoken by the speaker have to be enclosed within quotation marks or speech marks.

3. When using direct speech, you can follow the formula given below.

• Name of the speaker, ".........".

4. You can also use words like replied, asked, screamed, etc. to state what the speaker said according to the emotion in which it is being spoken.

5. Immediately after one of the above-mentioned verbs, add a comma followed by open quotation marks, the words of the speaker (capitalise the first letter of the first word) followed by a period, question mark or exclamation mark and the close quotation marks.

6. Also, make sure you close the quotation marks after the punctuation mark (full stop/question mark/exclamation mark).

7. Finally, keep in mind that you cannot change the words, or paraphrase what has been said by the speaker when you are using direct speech.

Examples:

1. Devi said, “I am teaching French for first year and second year college students.”

2. Freeda asked her brother, “Can you pick me up on your way home?”

3. “My friends are finally coming home this weekend," said Sheena.

4. The students replied, “We are ready!”

Verb tense that is used in reported speech:

When you are reporting about what someone said in the past, you usually shift back a verb tense from the tense the speaker used.

Example:

1. simple present to simple past:

   • "I am hungry". (Quotation)

   • She stated that she was hungry. (Reported speech)

2. Past to past perfect:

   • "I saw them leaving". (Quotation)

   • Aidan said that he had seen them leave. (Reported speech)

• Question: Are you ready?

• Statement: I am ready.

• Question in reported speech: She wanted to know if I was ready.

Punctuation: If the sentence is a statement, end it with a period even if it contains a reported question.

• Statement containing a reported question: She asked me what I thought of the book.

• Question containing a reported question: Did she ask what you thought of the book?

1. How about yes or no questions?

To change a yes/no question to a noun clause in reported speech, introduce the noun clause "if" or "whether." "Whether or not" may also be used.

Examples:

• "Did you turn off the coffee pot?" (Quotation)

• I asked Evelyn if she had turned off the coffee pot. (Reported speech)

2. Information questions:

   To change an information question to a noun clause in reported speech, begin the noun clause with the question word and remember to use sentence word order.

   
   

   Examples:

   • "Where do they live?" (Quotation)

   • Abdul wanted to know where they live. (Reported speech)

   
   

Examples:

• "You should arrive early" (Quotation)

• Alex recommended that we arrive early. (Reported speech)

• A noun clause with "if"

• An infinitive

Examples:

• Action: "Will you carry the box for me?" (Quotation)

  Reported speech: She asked if I would carry the box for her.

• Permission: "Can I make an appointment?" (Quotation)

• Reported speech: Durand asked to make an appointment.

In reported speech, statements are indirect representations of what someone has said. There are some changes made when when we use reported speech. In contrast to direct speech, reported speech do not use the exact words of the speaker.

*When transforming a sentence from direct speech into reported speech, you will have to change the pronouns, tense and adverbs of time and place used by the speaker.

1. Change of pronouns:

   • I ------ He, she

   • Me ------ Him, her

   • We ------ They

   • Us ------ Them

   • You ------ He, she, they

   • You ------ I'm, her, them

   • My ------ His, her

   • Mine ------ His, hers

2. Change of adverbs of place and adverbs of time:

   • This ------ That

   • These ------ Those

   • Here ------ There

   • Now ------ Then

   • Today ------ That day

   • Tomorrow ------ The next day

3. Change of tense:

   • Simple present to simple past

   • Present continuous to past continuous

   • Present perfect to past perfect

   • Present perfect to past perfect continuous

   • Simple past to past perfect

4. Change of modal verbs:

   • Will ------ would

   • May ------ might

   • Can ------ could

   • Shall ------ should

   • Has/Have ------ Had

Example:

1. Direct speech: She said, "You should study for the exam."

   Reported speech: She advised me to study for the exam.

• Key points here:

  • The reporting verb "advised" is commonly used.

  • The pronouns and verb tenses are adjusted accordingly.

• Example:

  • Direct Speech: "I am going to visit my grandparents."

  • Reported Speech: She said that she intended to visit her grandparents.

• Key Points:

  • The reporting verb reflects the intention or purpose, such as "intended," "planned," or "aimed."

  • Pronouns and verb tenses are adjusted as needed.

To conclude, changes are made accordingly to the situations.

• The word order in indirect reports of wh-questions is the same as statement word order (subject + verb), not question word order:

She always asks me where [S] [V]I am going.

Not: She always asks me where am I going.

• We don’t use a question mark when reporting wh-questions:

I asked him what he was doing.

Not: I asked him what he was doing?

• The house where he was born has been made a national shrine. (adj. clause modifies house)

• She is one who earned her honours. (adj. clause modifies one)

• The assignment, which I did last week, received a grade of C.(adj. clause modifies assignment)

Key points:

1. Adjective clause follows noun.

2. Often start with relative pronouns (that, which, who, whom, whose).

Two kinds of relative clause:

1. Restrictive vs non-restrictive

2. Defining vs non-defining

Defining: Explain which person or thing you are talking about.

Example: I met the woman who lives next door.

Non-defining: Gives further info which is not needed to identify the person, thing, or group you are talking about.

Example: I saw Datuk Najib Tun Razak, who was visiting our college.

Ex:

1. Whoever wins the election will have many problems. (noun clause as a subject)

2. This is what she does. (noun clause as C)

3. Do you know what the score is?(noun clause as D.O.)

4. Here is a copy of what I said. (noun clause as object of preposition)

Key points:

1. A noun clause may begin with an indefinite relative pronoun: that, what, whatever, who, which, whoever, whichever.

2. A noun clause may begin with an indefinite relative adjective: whose, which, whichever.

3. A noun clause may begin with an indefinite relative adverb: where, when, how, etc.

Noun clause as subject: That it snowed surprised me.

Noun clause as subj complement: The question was how to

cross the bridge.

Noun clause as object of preposition: You give the drum to

whoever wants it.

summary: Noun clause can be subject, object, object of preposition,

complement, appositive.

• an adverb clause begin with a subordinating conjunction (after, as, even if, that, though, while, etc)

• Adverb clauses modifying verbs can move around the sentence.

  Example: Whenever it rains, my sister loves to jump in the puddles. / My sister loves to jump in the puddles whenever it rains.

• Adverbs clauses modifying adj or adverbs must come after the word modified.

  Example: Playing football is dangerous if you don't have the

  right equipment.

Example: She is confident(adj) that she will win(AC). (modifies adj confident)

Example: The woman who is wearing a red dress is my sister. ("who is wearing a red dress" is a relative clause providing additional information about the woman).

• We use relative pronouns (who, which, whom, that, whose, etc) to introduce relative clauses.

• Relative clauses tell us more about people and things.

There are two kind of relative clauses:

1. We use relative clauses to make clear which person or thing we are talking about:

   This is the house which Jack built.

2. We also use relative clauses to give more information about a person, thing or situation:

   Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired.

*Remember!! Every clause must have subject + verb

Example:

1. The patrol had spotted the sniper, who was hiding in an attic.

   The patrol had spotted the sniper - An independent clause because the clause can stand on its own and have a complete thought.

2. When it rains, the daffodils bow their heads.

   the daffodils bow their heads - An independent clause because the sentence can stand on its own and have a complete thought.

In conclusion, independent clause can stand on its own and have a complete thought.

A dependent clause supports the main clause of a sentence by adding to its meaning. Like any clause, a dependent clause has a subject and a verb.

Example:

• The villagers lived happily until the wolves appeared.

  Until the wolves appeared is a dependent clause because it is not a complete thought and cannot stand on its own.

In conclusion, a dependent clause cannot stand on its own and do not have a complete thought.

Example: "The sun rises in the east."

Example: "Could you please pass me the salt?"

command.

Example: "Why don't we try the new Italian restaurant for dinner?"

DIRECT: “Could you kindly close the door please?” he said.
    >> REPORTED: He asked me to close the door.

DIRECT: “Could you watch the children on Saturday?” Naomi asked.
    >> REPORTED: Naomi asked me to watch the children on Saturday.