Using qualifiers to add complex details

We’ve seen the basics of a noun group. Now here’s where it gets a little more complicated.

Things can also have qualifiers.

Qualifiers expand on our description about the thing.

Have a look at this snippet. It has a fairly simple qualifier made of a prepositional phrase (meaning a phrase beginning with a preposition-word such as in, on, by, of and so on—we have a whole separate lesson on prepositional phrases).

As they walked into the terminal, a blond woman in a hot pink suit ran up to them.

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The main thing in this snippet is a blond woman.

The qualifier tells us this woman was in a hot pink suit.

Here's some examples of other qualifiers:

As they walked into the terminal, a blond woman by the milk kiosk ran up to them.

As they walked into the terminal, a blond woman holding a chipmunk ran up to them.

As they walked into the terminal, a blond woman who could have easily lifted a truck with one hand ran up to them.

See how the qualifier can be quite simple, but it can also be very complex.

Also notice that the qualifier comes after the noun. Try writing the qualifier before the noun or the pointer and see where that gets you!

Yes! Qualifiers often have their own noun groups inside them.

You could highlight each thing, classifier, pointer and so on in the qualifier. The downside is you’d lose the sense of the qualifier as a complete unit, so unless we specifically need to, we’ll highlight a qualifier as a single piece, no matter how long it gets.

To learn more about this, check out the prepositional phrases lesson. Qualifiers are often prepositional phrases, and they can get wild.

Write your own variation, changing only the qualifier.

Write another one.

Noun groups

Using qualifiers to add complex details