Editing English grammar (section)

====Phrases<span class="anchor" id="Noun phrases"></span>====
[[Noun phrase]]s are phrases that function grammatically as nouns within sentences, for example as the [[subject (grammar)|subject]] or [[object (grammar)|object]] of a verb. Most noun phrases have a noun as their [[head (linguistics)|head]].<ref name=carter-mccarthy-p299/>

An English noun phrase typically takes the following form (not all elements need be present):
:{| cellspacing="5"
|- style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: larger;"
! Determiner || + || Pre-modifiers || + || NOUN || + || Postmodifiers/Complement
|}

In this structure:
*the ''determiner'' may be an article (''the'', ''a[n]'') or other equivalent word, as described in the following section. In many contexts, it is required for a noun phrase to include some determiner.
*''[[pre-modifier]]s'' include adjectives and some adjective phrases (such as ''red'', ''really lovely''), and [[noun adjunct]]s (such as ''college'' in the phrase ''the college student''). Adjectival modifiers usually come before noun adjuncts.
*a ''[[complement (linguistics)|complement]]'' or ''[[postmodifier]]''<ref name=carter-mccarthy-p299/> may be a prepositional phrase (''... of London''), a [[relative clause]] (like ''... which we saw yesterday''), certain adjective or [[participial]] phrases (''... sitting on the beach''), or a [[dependent clause]] or [[infinitive phrase]] appropriate to the noun (like ''... that the world is round'' after a noun such as ''fact'' or ''statement'', or ''... to travel widely'' after a noun such as ''desire'').

An example of a noun phrase that includes all of the above-mentioned elements is ''that rather attractive young college student to whom you were talking''. Here ''that'' is the determiner, ''rather attractive'' and ''young'' are adjectival pre-modifiers, ''college'' is a noun adjunct, ''student'' is the noun serving as the head of the phrase, and ''to whom you were talking'' is a post-modifier (a relative clause in this case). Notice the order of the pre-modifiers; the determiner ''that'' must come first and the noun adjunct ''college'' must come after the adjectival modifiers.

[[English coordinators|Coordinators]] such as ''and'', ''or'', and ''but'' can be used at various levels in noun phrases, as in ''John, Paul, and Mary''; ''the matching green coat and hat''; ''a dangerous but exciting ride''; ''a person sitting down or standing up''. See {{slink||Conjunctions}} below for more explanation.

Noun phrases can also be placed in ''[[apposition]]'' (where two consecutive phrases refer to the same thing), as in ''that president, Abraham Lincoln, ...'' (where ''that president'' and ''Abraham Lincoln'' are in apposition). In some contexts, the same can be expressed by a prepositional phrase, as in ''the twin curses of famine and pestilence'' (meaning "the twin curses" that are "famine and pestilence").

Particular forms of noun phrases include:
* phrases formed by the determiner ''the'' with an adjective, as in ''the homeless'', ''the English'' (these are [[plural]] phrases referring to homeless people or English people in general);
* phrases with a pronoun rather than a noun as the head (see below);
* phrases consisting just of a [[English possessive|possessive]];
* [[infinitive]] and [[gerund]] phrases, in certain positions;
* certain clauses, such as ''that'' clauses and [[content clause]]s like ''what he said'', in certain positions.