Apr 20, 2015 gerunds, infinitives, and verbsasnouns by david recine on april 20, 2015 in grammar in my last post about gerunds verbs with in ing and infinitives verbs that follow to, i showed you how to use these verb forms to describe an action. It may consist of only the head or the head and other preceding items or following items as modifiers. Unit 16 challenges and accomplishments complex noun phrases containing gerunds lic. Given that the scope of this study is limited to nominal postmodifiers. One way to check is to substitute another word that you know is a noun. Lets break down this definition to understand it better. Noun phrases allow writers to include a great deal. Most of these words take articles before them and form plurals with s. Gerunds, infinitives, and verbsasnouns magoosh toefl blog. The complex noun phrase in advanced students writing. Adjective, adverb, noun clauses gerund,participial and infinitive phrases jfjafar aiasgari english department kashan university of medical sciencesuniversity of medical sciences. Adjective, adverb, noun clauses gerund,participial and.
Noun phrases can function in several different ways in a sentence. Jul 25, 2016 complex noun phrases containing gerunds this feature is not available right now. Remember that a noun with any sort of modifier including just a number or an article is a noun phrase. Gerunds and infinitives are also commonly used in verbs that have been turned into nouns. Manhattan prep gmat forum en simple gerund and complex gerund. First, here is an example of a gerund phrase in a sentence. A gerund phrase is a phrase that begins with a gerund, and functions as a noun. Lets take a look at some examples which will clarify these unique members of the english language. Make sure to use complex noun phrases to improve the complexity and conciseness accuracy and directness of your grammar in both speaking and writing. Simple nps are thus nps containing a determiner and a head noun i. A phrase is a group of words that act as a part of speech but cannot stand alone as. A root morpheme book, and two bound morphemes ing and s.
There are many cases where gerunds are used in a phrase. Diagramming phrases made easy english grammar revolution. Running is the gerund in the sentence because it is used as a noun. A noun phrase can be a single wordjust the noun or more than one word. Using verb forms as subjects when functioning as the subject of a sentence, gerunds and infinitives always use a singular verb.
Serving as a predicate noun is one of a gerund s important functions. Gerunds can appear by themselves, or they can be part of a larger gerund phrase. Complex noun phrases are used by all good writers of english because of their efficiency in providing detail. A man climbing nearby who saw the accident said it. Gerunds are words that are formed as verbs, but used as nouns. We can see this by replacing the phrase with a noun and seeing that it does not make sense. Adjective, adverb, noun clauses gerund,participial and infinitive phrases. However, it is important to note that gerunds are verbs that act as noun in sentence. Like all nouns, a noun phrase can be a subject, object, or complement. Noun phrases allow writers to include a great deal of information without using too many words.
The gerund phrase is the object of the preposition after. Structural and discourse properties loreley marie hadic zabala bachelor of arts, simon fraser university, 2002 thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of arts in the department of linguistics 0 loreley marie hadic zabala 2004 simon fraser university fall 2004. A gerund, which functions as a noun, can consist of a single word or a phrase. Noun phrases are underlined in the following sentences. Noun phrases a noun phrase is a group of two or more words that is headed by a noun a person, place, or thing that includes modifiers e. Meanwhile, a phrase is a group of words that contains either a subject noun or a verb but not both.
When we look at the structure of writing, we treat a noun phrase the same way we treat a common noun. In a noun phrase, the modifiers can come before or after the noun. We found that pastor 2008 argues along similar lines to ours, looking into english complex noun phrase interpretation by spanish learners of english as a second language. Learn english online with an allinone selfstudy course from anglolink. A good rule of thumb is to write the most common compound nouns as one word, and the others as two words. It is a participle phrase, which acts like an adjective.
A gerund accompanied by its objects, complements, andor modifiers is called a gerund phrase or simply a noun phrase. Well, it is not acting like a noun and thus does not satisfy the four rules of gerund phrases. A complex noun is a compound noun formed when a noun is put together with another part of speech. Since you already learned about how to reduce noun clauses to infinitive phrases. When you are reading ielts passages or texts for native speakers, see if you can spot complex noun phrases. Having cleaned her room, jolene went outside for a walk. A noun phrase that contains a gerund will always be complex, because the gerund will introduce a subordinate clause. Gerund phrases consist of a gerund and all of the gerund s complements and modifiers. In the sentence cheese is my favorite food, the word food is the predicate. Place a box around the noun or pronoun it is modifying. Gerunds simply serve as a pure verbal noun, which provides variations to sentences in a text.
Some of these cards are focused on the grammar of the gerund phrase, but some have examples of sentences with them. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The predicate noun renames the subject of the sentence. A predicate noun, also known as a subject complement, occurs at the end of a sentence containing a linking verb. Like nouns, gerunds and gerund phrases can function as subjects, objects, or complements in a sentence. In my last post about gerunds verbs with in ing and infinitives verbs that follow to, i showed you how to use these verb forms to describe an action. Revise each noun phrase to make the postmodifier wholly or partly into a premodifier. These words are the most parts nouns, adjectives and verbs. This focusses on complex noun phrases, but includes information about prepositional phrases as they often live in larger noun phrases.
Nouns are naming words and often stand alone in a sentence. Join the sentences by typing the missing words to make one sentence using a noun phrase. The four types of gerunds and gerund phrases follow. Effectively using complex noun phrases makes your writing more academic and precise. The wicked man loves getting poor people into trouble. A gerund is a noun made from a verb root plus ing a present participle. The elements in a compound noun are very diverse parts of speech.
Revise each noun phrase to make the postmodifier wholly or partly into a premodifier example. The gerund phrase the gerund phrase consists of the gerund, which always ends in ing, and its modifiers and complements. I guarantee that you will start to notice them everywhere. So noun phrases really shouldnt be ignored by coursebook syllabus writers or teachers. Complex noun phrases containing gerunds this feature is not available right now. Chapter 6 phrases, clauses, and sentences chapter checkin recognizing phrases identifying independent and subordinate clauses understanding sentences clauses and phrases are the building blocks of sentences. More examples of noun phrases noun phrases are extremely common. Download file pdf chapter 14 noun clauses azargrammar com. There are four complex noun phrases in this section. The first part offers a theoretical overview of the terminology of the complex noun phrase as introduced in four popular english grammar books, while the second part presents and discusses the.
Some of the most common functions of noun phrases are listed below. A gerund phrase is created when a gerund a verb that takes an ing form and functions as a noun has a modifier, object or both. But you can also reduce some noun clauses to gerund phrases. These examples show gerund phrases functioning as subjects. Nov 22, 2008 it can act as a noun, so it can function, from a syntactic point of view, as subject of a sentence, direct object, object of a preposition, subjective complement or predicative, apposition, object complement. In most cases, we use gerunds to add a variation to our writing. You have noticed that the compound noun can be written either as a single word, as a word with a hyphen, or as two words. Notice that grammatically, we use a complex noun phrase like a single noun, so we could replace the whole complex noun phrase with it. A whole gerund phrase functions in a sentence just like a noun, and can act as a subject, an object, or a predicate nominative. A gerund phrase is a phrase consisting of a gerund and any modifiers or objects associated with it. Pdf the complex noun phrase in advanced students writing. All these people can help students understand how noun phrases fit into the syntax of a sentence, produce more complex noun phrases as they become more advanced, and become aware of how noun phrases operate differently in different registers. Write five sentences, each containing one or more gerund phrases. For these, your challenge is to identify or write out the phrase.
A subordinate conjunction performs two functions within a sentence. Since horses is a noun and works correctly in this sentence, we know that running is also used as a noun. A gerund is one of three classes of words called verbals words based on verbs and expressing an action or a state of being but serving another grammatical function. Nouns, gerunds, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and participles are used in these words. A gerund is a verb ending with ing, but, it works as a noun and can act as a subject, object, or complement in a sentence. Definition a noun phrase is a phrase in which a noun is the head.
The best defense against the atom bomb is not to be there when it goes off. Examples of gerunds or gerund phrases used as the subject. Remember, in every instance below, the gerund is working as a noun. A noun phrase can be a single wordjust the nounor more than one word.
The noun phrase teachingenglish british council bbc. Gerunds are not, however, all that easy to pick out. When gerunds combine with other words to form phrases, we have the gerund phrase. Aug 27, 2009 grammar complex noun phrases with gerunds if this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. What makes a gerund different from a simple noun is that it does not have a proper plural form. How do we know the second example is not a gerund phrase. The gerund phrase is the direct object of finished. Thebestthing of being a flightattendantisallthetravelopportunities one. January 19, 2011 many words which were originally gerunds are now treated as simple nouns. Grammar complex noun phrases with gerunds if this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. Building noun phrases and compound nouns pedagogical. There is only one rule to remember about using subordinate conjunctions. For example, i cant believe that people like horses. That sounds quite technical, so lets break it down for a simple explanation of a gerund phrase.
The noun clause, altogether, is either the subject or object of a complete sentence. Gerunds, although they have a unique structure ending in ing, can still be difficult to understand since present participle and other continuous forms of verbs also end in ing. Apr 27, 2017 in morphology a complex noun has two or more morphemes. Just thinking about the possible structures that can serve as subjects of sentences should convince you that an exhaustive catalog of noun phrases would be, if at all possible, incredibly long and complex. A noun phrase is a group of words that work together to name and describe a person, place, thing, or idea. Browse other questions tagged meaning grammar usage gerunds ofphrases or ask your own question. The poor man wanted to pay back every penny he owed. Structure of complex sentences every complex sentence is made up of two parts, the dependent and the.
We cannot possibly hope to characterize all of the possible noun phrases of english on the basis of form. Since it is a verb that acts like a noun, it is a gerund. The proposal is schematically demonstrated in 33 containing the null expletive. This lesson will focus only on how to reduce them to gerund phrases. A noun phrase includes determiners and modifiers that specifically add information about the noun. In morphology a complex noun has two or more morphemes.
Allison, racing down the stairs, dropped her books. John is the noun phrase functioning as the subject of the verb. That means that they can perform any of the noun jobs. The gerund phrase is the subject of the verb takes. You may also see infinitive phrase worksheets and examples. At times a noun can be added to a gerund and form a compound word. Start studying remedial book 3 unit 16 complex noun phrases with gerunds matching. Stress that in a sentence containing a noun clause, there are two clauses, and only the main clause is independent. Subordinating conjunctions are essential parts of complex sentences with include at least two clauses, with one of the clauses being main independent and the other being subordinate dependent. Articles written by native speakers generally contain a lot of complex noun phrases and so studying these phrases will help you with reading comprehension as well. A noun can also combine with various types of adjectives, quantifiers, another noun, prepositions and verbs to form a noun phrase which functions as a unit in a sentence. A noun phrase is either a single noun or pronoun or a group of words containing a noun or a pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun, as the subject or object of a verb.
193 1035 1370 1220 1046 636 977 677 716 395 1048 1311 494 49 844 122 1304 116 927 1259 446 1295 1300 1421 288 823 931 575 780 540 1332 199 209 130 513 54 149 542 384 977 897 39 1353 756 521 1322 1335 785