Hello. I'm Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English IELTS preparation.
Today we're going to focus on word form groups - noun, verb and preposition phrases.
Then, we'll look at some words that can be used as both nouns and verbs, and we'll learn
how to tell which is which.
But first, we visit an automotive factory - a place where they build cars - and we see
how a new piece of machinery is helping to avoid mistakes in the manufacturing process.
Here, we have two faults, which are very common in the automotive industry, where the weld
has deviated from the seam here.
Paint and grease are very common faults in the automotive industry and where we've welded
over the paint, you can see that there's bubbles in the weld. Typically we call this porosity.
At the moment, you only take a sample of the cars. You're not able to test every weld in
every car, and that's a major advantage of our technology. We can test every weld in
every car.
Understanding English is much easier if you understand how words can be grouped together.
Knowing the function of a group of words can help you to follow a sequence of ideas when
you're reading or listening.
The main word form groups are noun phrases, verb phrases and preposition phrases.
Let's begin with noun phrases.
A noun phrase is made up of a determiner.
That might be an article, like a, an or the.
A determiner could be a number, like one, two or three.
Or it could be a demonstrative adjective, for example this or those.
As well as a determiner, a noun phrase can have a modifier.
A modifier can be an adjective, like big, green or impressive.
Or it could be a possessive, like my or John's.
And finally, a noun phrase must have a noun.
An example of a noun phrase is the IELTS test.
It has a determiner, a modifier and a noun.
Now, let's take a look at a verb phrase.
There are a variety of verb phrases.
The simplest verb phrase is a single main verb standing alone.
Other verb phrases are formed by an auxiliary verb + main verb or different combinations
of auxiliary verbs + main verbs.
For example:
She finished her homework.
She had finished her homework.
She was required to finish her homework.
She finished doing her homework.
OK. So that's noun phrases and verb phrases. There are also preposition phrases.
A preposition phrase begins with a preposition. It could be a preposition of time, place or
direction.
So a preposition phrase starts with words such as at, on, during, up or down.
Let's put a noun, verb and preposition phrase together.
In the sentence: The IELTS test finished at one o'clock on Friday.
we have a noun phrase, a verb phrase, and a preposition phrase.
The function of verb, noun and preposition phrases depends on their position in the sentence.
Noun phrases are often subjects.
They usually come before the verb phrase in a sentence. The noun phrase tells us everything
about the verb in the clause that follows.
Let's listen to Dr Trevor Gore. He's talking about faults or weaknesses that occur at points
that have been welded together.
See if you can tell what is the function of the word 'weld'.
Here, we have two faults, which are very common in the automotive industry, where the weld
has deviated from the seam here.
Dr Gore says: The weld has deviated from the seam.
The weld is a noun phrase.
It contains a determiner, the
and a noun, weld.
The weld is a noun phrase that functions as the subject of this clause.
It's followed by the verb phrase has deviated, and then the preposition phrase from the seam.
Let's listen to Dr Gore use the word 'weld' in a different clip. What is the function
of 'weld' in this context?
Paint and grease are very common faults in the automotive industry and where we've welded
over the paint, you can see that there's bubbles in the weld.
He says: We have welded over the paint.
The subject is we.
Have welded is the verb phrase. It functions as the verb of the sentence.
So here, weld is used as a verb.
Notice that over the paint is the preposition phrase.
There's one more use of the word weld in the story.
At the moment, you only take a sample of the cars.
You're not able to test every weld in every car, and that's a major advantage of our technology.
We can test every weld in every car.
He uses weld twice.
He says with the old technology: You are not able to test every weld.
But when talking about the new technology he says: We can test every weld.
In both of these sentences, weld occurs with a determiner.
The determiner is every. So weld is used as part of a noun phrase - every weld. It's a
noun.
It occurs after the verb phrases are not able to test and can test.
So here the noun phrase every weld is an object.
We've seen how different word forms can perform different functions.
For example, weld is used in today's story as both a noun and a verb.
There are quite a few words in English that use the same word for both the noun and verb
form.
Listen for some other examples.
Paint and grease are very common faults in the automotive industry and where we've welded
over the paint, you can see that there's bubbles in the weld. Typically we call this porosity.
At the moment you only take a sample of the cars. You're not able to test every weld in
every car, and that's a major advantage of our technology. We can test every weld in
every car.
Dr Gore says that:
You only take a sample of the cars.
The word sample can be used as a verb or a noun. What is it in this sentence?
Sample occurs after a determiner, a.
So we know that it is the noun in a noun phrase.
He also says: You are not able to test every weld in every car.
Like 'sample', 'test' can be a noun and a verb. Here, test is part of the verb phrase,
are not able to test. It's a verb.
So you can see that it's a good idea to study a sentence closely for noun, verb and preposition
phrases if you're confused about meaning.
Let's take a quick look back over what we've looked at today.
We practiced identifying and using noun and verb forms in different functions.
We looked at what makes a noun phrase, a verb phrase and a preposition phrase.
And we finished by looking at words that are both nouns and verbs.
There are many more examples and exercises on the Study English website. So don't forget
to log on for some more practice. It's at abcasiapacific.com/studyenglish.
And I'll see you next time. Bye bye.