EXERCISE 3 of NOUN PHRASE

        Choose the correct determiners in the following sentence.

6.  I do not want (these / this) water.

     Answer : I do not want this water

8.  A (few / little) people left early.

     Answer : A few people left early

 

THE NOUN PHRASE

4. THE NOUN PHRASE

The noun phrase is a group of worlds that ends with a noun. It can contain determine (the, a, this, etc), adjective, adverbs, and nouns. It CANNOT begin with a preposition. Remember that both subject and complements are generally noun phrase.

A.    COUNT AND NON-COUNT NOUNS

A count noun is one that can be counted.

Book --- one book, two book, three books, ….

Student --- one student, two student, three student, ….

Person --- one person, two person, three person, ….

 

A non-count noun is one that cannot be counted.

Milk --- you cannot say : one milk, two milk, three milk, ….

 

It is possible, however, to count some non-count nouns if the substance is placed in a countable container.

Glass of milk --- one glass of milk, two glass of milk, three glass of milk, …. 

 

Some determine can be used only with count or non-count nouns, while others can be used with either. Memorize the words in the following chart

 

With Count Nouns	With Non-Count Nouns
A(n), the, some, any This, that, these, those None, one, two, three Many  A lot of A (large / great) number of (a) few Fewer …. than More …. than	The, some, any This, that None Much ( usually in negatives or questions ) A lot of A large amount of (a) little Less …. than More …. than

 

It is very important to know if a noun is non-count. Be sure that you know the plurals of irregular count nouns. The following lis contains some irregular count nouns that you should know.

Person—people                  child---children                   tooht---teeth Foot—feet                            mouse---mice                     man---men Woman—women

 

The following list contains some non-count nouns that you should know.

Sand                      soap                           physic                      mathematics  News                    mumps                      air                            politics  Measles               information              meat                        homework  Food                     economics                advertising*           money

 

*NOTE : Although advertising is a non-count noun, advertising ent is  a count noun. if you wish to speak of one particular advertisement, you must use this world.

There are too many advertisements during television shows.

There is too much advertisingduring television shows.

 

Some non-count nouns, such as food, meat, money, and sand, may be used as count nouns in order to indicate different types.

This is one of the foods that my doctor has forbidden me to eat. 

(indicates a particular type of food)

 

He studies meats.

(for example, beef, pork, lamb, etc)

 

B.    A AND AN

A or an can precede only singular count nouns; they mean one. They can be used in a general statement or to introduce a subject which has not been previously mentioned. 

A baseball is round.                                                (general---means all baseball)

I saw a boy in the street.                                        (We don’t know which boy)

 

An is used before words that begin with a vowel sound. A is used before word that begin with a consonant sound.

A book                            An apple

Some words can be confusing because the spelling doesn’t indicate the pronunciation.

A house                                                (begins with a consonant sound)

An hour                                                (begins with a vowel sound)

A university                        (begins with a consonant sound)

An umbrella                        (begins with a vowel sound

The following words begin with a consonant sound and thus must always be preceded by a.

European            eulogy                  euphemism        eucalyptus House                   home                    heavy                    half Uniform               university            universal              union

 

 

 

 

The following words begin with a vowel sound and thus must always be preceded by an.

Hour                      heir                        herbal                   honor Uncel                    Umbrella             unnatural                understanding

 

 

 

The initial sound of the word that immediately follows the indefinite article will determine whether it sound be a or an.

An umbrella                        a white umbrella

An hour                                                a whole hour

 

C.     THE

The is ude to indicate something that we already know about or something that is common knowledge.

The boy in the corner is my friend.                           ( the speaker and the listener know which boy. )

The earth is round                                                           ( there is only one earth. )

 

With non-count nouns, one uses the article the if speaking in specific terms, but uses no article if speaking in general.

Sugar is sweet.                                                                  ( general---all sugar )

The sugar on the table is form Cuba.                       ( specific---the sugar that is on the table )

 

Normally, plural count nouns, when they mean everything within a certain class, are not preceded by the.

Oranges are green until they ripen.                                                         ( all oranges )

Athletes should followa well-balanced diet.                                         ( all athletes )

 

Normally a proper noun is not preceded by an article unless there are several people or things with the same name the speaker is specifying one of them.

There are three Susan Parkers in the telephone directory.

The Susan Parker that I know lives on First Avenue.

 

Normally words such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, school, church, home, college, and work don’t use any article unless to restrict the meaning.

We eat breakfast at eight o’clock this morning.

We went to school yesterday.

 

Use the following generalizations as a guide for the use of the article the.

use THE with

Don’t use THE with

Oceans, rivers, seas, gulfs, plural, lakes                 The Red Sea, The Atlantic Ocean                 The Persian Gulf                 The Great Lakes Mountains                 The Rocky Mountains                 The Andes Earth, moon                 The earth                  The moon Schools, colleges, universities when the prehase begin with school, etc.                 The University of Florida                 The College of Arts and Sciences Ordinal numbers before nouns.                 The First World War                 The third chapter Wars (except world wars)                 The Crimean War                 The Korean War Certain countries or groups of countries with more than one word (except Great Britain)                 The United State                 The United Kingdom                 The Central African Republic         Historical documents                 The Constitution                 The Magna Carta Ethnic groups                 The Indians, The Aztecs

Singular lakes                 Lake Geneva                 Lake Eric   Mounts                 Mount Vesuvius                 Mount McKinley Planets, constellations                 Venus, Mars, Earth, Orion   Schools, colleges, universities when the phrase begins with a proper noun                 Santa Fe Community College                 Cooper’s Art School Cardinal numbers after nouns                 World War One, Chapter three         Countries preceded by New or an adjective such as a direction                 New Zealand, South Africa Countries with only one word France, Sweden, Venezuela Continents                 European, Africa, South America States                 Florida, Ohio, California           Sports                 Baseball, Basketball Abstarct nouns                 Freedom, happiness General areas of subject matter  Mathematics, Sociology Holidays                 Christmas, Thanksgiving