Top Tips Grammar: Adding to a noun group

Main points

*Some adjectives can be used after nouns.
*You can use relative clauses after nouns.
*Adverbials of place and time can come after nouns.
*A noun can be followed by another noun group.
*You can use ‘that’- clauses after some nouns.

 

a) You can use some adjectives after a noun to give more information about it, but the adjectives are usually followed by a prepositional phrase, a ‘to’- infinitive clause, or an adverbial.

- This is a warning to people eager for a quick profit.
- These are the weapons likely to be used.
- For a list of the facilities available here, ask the secretary.
- You must talk to the people concerned.

b) When you want to give more precise information about the person or thing you are talking about, you can use a defining relative clause after the noun.

- The man who had done it was arrested.
- There are a lot of things that are wrong.
- Nearly all the people I used to know have gone.

Note that you can also use defining relative clauses after indefinite pronouns such as ‘someone’ or ‘something’.

- I’m talking about somebody who is really ill.

 

c) You can use an adverbial of place or time after noun.

- People everywhere are becoming more selfish.
- This is a reflection of life today.

 

d) You can add a second noun group after a noun. The second noun group gives you more precise information about the first noun.

- Her mother, a Canadian, died when she was six.

Note that the second noun group is separated by commas from the rest of the clause.

 

e) Nouns such as ‘advice’, ‘hope’, and ‘whish’, which refer to what someone says or thinks, can be followed by a ‘that’- clause. Here are some examples:

advice	claim	feeling	threat
agreement	conclusion	hope	warning
belief	decision	promise	wish

- It is my firm belief that more women should stand for Parliament.
- I had a feeling that no-one thought I was good enough.

Note that all these nouns are related to reporting verbs, which also take a ‘that’- clause.

For example, ‘information’ is related to ‘inform’, and ‘decision’ is related to ‘decide’.
Some of these nouns can also be followed by a ‘to’- infinitive clause.

agreement	hope	promise	warning
decision	order	threat	wish

- The decision to go had not been an easy one.
- I reminded Barnaby of his promise to buy his son a horse.

 

f) A few other nouns can be followed by a ‘that’- clause.

advantage	effect	idea	opinion
confidence	evidence	impression	possibility
danger	fact	news	view

- He didn’t want her to get the idea that he was rich.
- I had no evidence that Jed was the killer.
- He couldn’t believe the news that his house had just burned down.

Note that when a noun group is the object of a verb, it may be followed by different structures.

 

 

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Top Tips Abz Ingles: Part A    -    Part B
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See also:

Words related to Failure to Cooperate	Irregular Verbs list
Common Phrasal Verbs	Common Slangs
Common misspellings	Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Common Errors	Frequently confused words
Common Slangs	Lista de Términos Gramaticales
Common Clichés	Common Prepositions

 

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