Noun groups

Focusing on a specific part of a thing

You’ve seen that qualifiers are the last element in a noun group. But you can also have something very similar at the start of a noun group. We call this a focus, because it focuses in on a specific part of the thing.

Mr Fox crept up the dark tunnel to the mouth of his hole.

The Fantastic Mr Fox(1970)

You can see there are two things in the highlighted noun group:

  • The mouth
  • His hole

So if there are two things, why don't we say they are two separate noun groups? Or say the last one is a qualifier like on the previous page?

Because the main thing in this noun group is the hole—the mouth is just a small part of the main thing, so we call it a focus: the mouth of his hole.

Mr Fox crept up the dark tunnel to the start of the ice.

Mr Fox crept up the dark tunnel to the limits of his comfort.

Mr Fox crept up the dark tunnel to a scrap of her clothing.

You'll notice that a focus usually uses the word 'of' to connect to the rest of the noun group—because it's usually communicating 'part of' the whole.

Write your own variation. What exactly did Mr Fox crawl up to?
Write another one.
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