English Grammar: Noun Phrases and Noun Modifiers The teaching of grammar has made huge strides forward over the past few years with primary children becoming familiar with a range of terms including verbs, adverbs, conjunctions etc. Two terms which children may not have met before are ‘noun phrase’ and ‘noun modifier’. A noun phrase is a noun with one or more words added to it. ‘That gate’ is a noun phrase. A noun phrase can also include a noun modifier. A noun modifier is just another noun put before the main noun, telling us more about the original noun. Typical noun modifiers are garden gate, picnic table, crisp packet. Each noun has another noun in front of it (a noun modifier) acting rather like an adjective. Noun phrases and noun modifiers are introduced in Year 4 and we have just published an easy to understand set of pages on this, found in our ever-increasing Grammar section of the site. Go to English Grammar: Nouns