A noun phrase consists of a noun as the “head” and zero or more words that modify it. For example, the noun phrase “a house” consists of “house” as the head and the indefinite article “a” as a modifier. The phrase “a big house”, has two modifiers: “a” and “big”. A noun phrase can consist of only a noun. For example, “house” is a noun phrase with no modifiers.

It is important to know about the concept of noun phrase because in Persian, certain grammatical elements are placed in a different order than in English. For example, the indefinite article “-i” typically occurs at the end of a noun phrase whereas in English, it occurs at the beginning. In the examples, the head is wrapped in square brackets [].

Premodifiers

Premodifiers are modifiers that occur before the head. In Persian. the premodifiers of a noun phrase are as follows:

Linguistically, adjectives and determiners should be differentiated as distinct parts of speech. For example, “demonstrative determiner” is a more accurate term than the traditional term “demonstrative adjective”. However, for the sake of familiarity, the traditional terms will be used here.

Demonstrative Adjectives

Indefinite Adjectives

Interrogative Adjectives

Exclamatory Adjectives

Superlative Adjectives

Superlative Numerals

Cardinal Numerals

Classifiers And Massifiers

Postmodifiers

Postmodifiers are modifiers that occur after the head. The postmodifiers of a noun phrase in Persian are as follows:

Indefinite Article

Attributive Adjectives

Possessive Adjectives

Ordinal Numerals

Comparative Adjectives

Noun Complements