THE NOUN PHRASE

 The noun phraser is a group of words thet ends with a noun. It can countain deteriners (the, a, this, etc ), adjectives. adverbs, and nouns. It CANNOT begin with a preposition. Remember that both subjects and complements are generally noun phrases.

COUNT AND NON-COUNT NOUN

A count noun is one that can be counted.

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

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

person - one person, two people, three people,...

a non count noun is one that cannot be counted.

milk - you cannot say one milk, two milks, ..

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

glass of milk - one glass of milk, two glasses of milk,..

Some dererminers can be used only with count or non-count nouns. While others can be used with either. Memorize the word 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 / a 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 count or non-count. Be sure that you know the plurals or irregular count nouns. The following list contains some irregular count nouns that you should know.

Person-people	Child-children	Tooth-teeth
Foot-feet	Mouse-mice	Man-men
Woman-women

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

Sand	Soap	Physics	Mathematics
News	mumps	Air	Politics
Measles	Information	Meat	Homework
Food	economics	Advertising*	Money

*NOTE : Although avertising is a non-count noun, advertiser isa count noun. If you wish to speak of one particular advertisement, you must use this word.

There are too many advertisements during television shows.

There is too much advertising during television shows.

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

This is one of the foods that my doctor has forbdden me to eat.     (indicates a particular type of food)

He studies meats.     (for example, beef, pork, lamb, etc)

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 baseballs)
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 words that begin with a consonant sound.

a book                         an apple

Some words can be confusing because the spelling does not indicate the pronounciation.

A house	(begins with a consonant sound)
An hour	(begin with a vowel sound)
A university	(begin with a consonant sound)
An umbrella	(begin 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 proceded by an.

Hour	Heir	Herbal	Honor
uncle	umbrella	Unnatural	understanding

THE

The is used 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)

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

Use THE with	Don't use THE with
Oceans,rivers,seas,gulfs,plural lakes   The red sea, the athletic   Ocean, the persian gulf, the great lakes	Singular lakes     Lake geneva, lake eric
Mountains   The rocky mountains, the andes	Mounts     Mount vesuvius, mount McKinley
Earth, moon    The earth, the moon	Planets, constellations     Venus, mars, earth, orion.