Expanding Noun Phrases
Year 7 Sentence Starters
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Extension activities
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Teacher’s notes included in the Notes Page
Accompanying worksheet
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Contents
Nouns and noun phrases
Adjectives and adjectival phrases
Prepositional phrases
Expanding noun phrases activity and
summary
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Expanding Noun Phrases – Nouns and
noun phrases
Nouns and noun phrases
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Nouns and noun phrases
Hi Lei. Do you know how I can
make my writing more
descriptive?
I think so...Yes – that’s it!
You need to describe your
nouns in more detail to
interest your reader.
Okay, that sounds good but
can we recap nouns first?
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Nouns and noun phrases revision
I know that nouns are used all the time in
our writing…
Nouns are people, places, things or emotions,
e.g. Megan, France, a book, the sun, love etc.
Noun phrases are too…
Noun phrases are a group of words (including a noun) which
form a sentence when they are used with a verb,
e.g. My friends can ski.
noun phrase
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verb phrase
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Expanding Noun Phrases – Adjectives and
adjectival phrases
Adjectives and
adjectival phrases
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Adjectives
I know that one way of describing nouns in
more detail is to use adjectives…
Adjectives give us more
information about a noun,
e.g.
The ginger cat sat on the table.
The adjective ‘ginger’ gives us additional information about
the cat which is more interesting for the reader and is specific.
Try using different adjectives to change the
description of the cat.
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Spotting adjectives
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Adjectival phrases
Sometimes we use a group of words to
describe a noun more thoroughly. These are
called adjectival phrases…
An adjectival phrase is a group of words (including an
adjective) which describes a noun more thoroughly and
makes a sentence when used with a verb,
e.g.
This cake is very nice.
The book is really good.
The play is boring and too long.
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noun phrase
verb
adjectival phrase
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Identifying adjectival phrases
Read these sentences and then decide which parts are
adjectival phrases:
1. The golden retriever dog was extremely friendly.
2. My parents watch snooker and are really huge fans.
3. Your curly red hair is very pretty.
4. Our small, fragile Earth orbits the Sun.
5. I took ages to decide which dark blue jeans to buy.
6. You should eat fruit and vegetables as they are very
healthy foods.
Did you decide on these answers?
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Completing adjectival phrases
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Expanding Noun Phrases – Prepositional
phrases
Prepositional phrases
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Prepositional phrases
Great, I can use noun phrases
and adjectival phrases to
improve my writing.
Yes they are both useful ways of
varying your writing, but you could
go even further…by using
prepositional phrases.
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Prepositions and prepositional phrases
I know that prepositions are small words
which explain the position of nouns.
Prepositions describe where the noun is for the
reader to imagine it clearly,
e.g. in, on, to, at, with, under, over, above, below etc.
A prepositional phrase is a group of words
(including a preposition) which describes where
a noun is so the reader can imagine it clearly…
e.g. Many strange creatures live under the sea.
adjectival
phrase
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verb
phrase
prepositional
phrase
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Spotting prepositions
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Identifying prepositional phrases
Decide which parts are prepositional phrases in the
following sentences:
1. Above the clouds, the air is cold.
2. After the rain comes the sun.
3. Many of the students caught the bus to school.
4. Over the stile, the farm lay along the gravel track.
5. Pebbles were caught under the wheel of the bike.
6. A pot of gold lies at the end of the rainbow.
Did you find these answers?
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Completing prepositional phrases
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Expanding Noun Phrases – activity and
summary
Expanding noun phrases
activity and summary
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Writing phrases activity
Read the noun phrases below and then write an
adjectival phrase and a prepositional phrase to
complete each sentence in an imaginative way,
e.g. The parrot is very colourful and is sitting on a perch.
noun phrase adjectival phrase
prepositional phrase
1. The funfair
2. Martin’s skateboard
3. Scuba diving
4. School holidays
5. My bike
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Summary
My writing is going to be fantastic now that
I’ve learnt all these new techniques…
Yes, you might even start writing
nearly as well as I do soon…!
Remember:
adjectival phrases add description to noun phrases
prepositional phrases explain the positions of nouns.
TIP: Try to use a mixture of phrases in your writing.
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