Noun phrases in English

What is a noun phrase or noun group in English ?

Related pages: Nouns, Articles , Adjectives, Some or any, other Quantifiers, Possessives: using "of" or "'s", Count & non-count nouns, pronouns

The six most common models for noun phrases
1. Pronoun
2. Noun alone
3. Determiner + noun
4. Determiner + modifier + noun
5. Determiner + noun + extension.
6. Determiner + modifier + noun + extension
Examples
1. They
2. Apples
3. The apples
4. The biggest apples
5. The apples in this box
6. The biggest apples in this box
Other models are possible too.

Two simple "rules" govern the use of the noun group in English.

1. Most noun phrases consist of at least two elements

Unless it consists of a pronoun or of noun used in a generalising sense (see articles), a noun group consists of at least the following elements: a determiner and a noun.
A determiner is one of the following:

an article (the, a, an, some, any),
a quantifier (no, few, a few, many, etc.),
a possessive (my, your, whose, the man's, etc.),
a demonstrative (this, that, these, those),
a numeral (one, two, three etc.)
or a question word (which, whose, how many, etc.).

Except in some very rare cases, a noun can only be preceded by ONE determiner:

Examples: the man, some women, a few dogs, your horse, the man's horse* , that car, whose money, how many bottles?
(In this example, the man's horse* there appear to be two determiners before horse, but in fact there is only one: the determiner before horse is the man, and the article the is the determiner of the word man.)

2. Many noun phrases also include "modifiers"

A noun group can also contain one or more modifiers.

A modifier is an adjective, an adjectival phrase, a secondary noun, a prepositional phrase or a relative clause.
The principal noun in a noun group is called the head noun.

Adjectives are placed before the head noun: as in the Great Gatsby
(Click here for ► How to place adjectives in the right order)
Adjective phrases usually come before the head noun: as in:
a black-and-white striped vest
a rather tight-fitting dress
Secondary nouns behave exactly like adjectives, and come before the head noun:
a beer glass, the police inspector, a London bus
Prepositional phrases and relative clauses follow the head noun, as in:
the students in our class or the girl who gave me her phone-number.

Put all this together, and we get a complex noun group, such as:

The nice old-fashioned police inspector with white hair, who was drinking his beer, was Mr. Morse.

3. Some common exceptions

Sometimes an adjective or an adjectival phrase will follow the noun, or appear to do so. There are three cases that need to be noted:

A very few adjectives always follow the noun: concerned (in the sense of "being talked about"), and involved (in the sense of "participating", or "being present") are the two common ones.
Other participial adjectives (such as left, remaining, missing) appear to be used as adjectives that follow the noun; in reality, they are elliptical forms of a relative clause that has become reduced to a single word.
Adjectives follow the noun when the adjectives themselves are post-modified (defined) by a following phrase.

Examples.

There's been an outbreak of flu, but there are only fifteen people concerned.
After the fight, the police arrested the men involved.
Oh look ! there is only one chocolate left !!
We can't go yet !! There are still three people missing.
There was a crowd bigger than last year.