Grammar Spotlight

Improving a skill learned at the A2 level, B1 level learners form an increasing range of complex noun phrases with more than one adjective.

   Inside there were three samples of a nasty purple liquid. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Spanish - Latin American)

   I know your company is offering an exciting new service in our area. (Cambridge English: Business Preliminary; Chinese)

   You can walk along the streets and eat typical Spanish food in good restaurants. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Spanish - European)

Learners at this level also greatly improve on their use of possessives in noun phrases. For example, learners can form noun phrases with noun + of + possessive pronouns. Although there are many instances of this pattern at A2, almost all are limited to the phrase friends of mine until the B1 level is achieved.

   … she told me many funny stories and I told her lots of silly mistakes of mine. (Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools; Vietnamese)

   A colleague of mine has told me about a Swiss hotel in London. (Cambridge English: Business Preliminary; German-Swiss)

   I want this dream of mine to come true. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Panjabi)

Where friends of… does appear, it is no longer tied almost exclusively to the phrase friends of mine. B1 learners can form noun phrases with a friend of or friends of + possessive determiner + noun.

   He is a friend of my husband. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Japanese)

   I just thought they were friends of my neighbour who were going to visit him. (Skills for Life: Entry 3; Polish)

Learners at the B1 level are also able to form complex noun phrases using a noun phrase + of + noun phrase + possessive determiner ’s + noun.

   I ran to the street and I saw the window of my neighbour’s car was broken. (Skills for Life: Entry 3; Portuguese)

   My friend Ronald had been chosen to play the role of James Bond’s son! (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Italian)

   She is the sister of my brother’s girlfriend so he invited her as well. (Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools; Bulgarian)

B1 learners can also omit the noun after possessive ’s to talk about a place which is familiar to the speaker and listener.

   Last week I left my clothes at the dry cleaner’s and I can’t collect them. (Skills for Life: Entry 3; Polish)

   I’m going to be absent from the English class next week, because I am going to the doctor’s. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Spanish - Latin American)

   It’s next to your grandma’s. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Portuguese)

At this level, learners can also demonstrate skill in punctuation as well as noun phrases as they put two noun phrases together (in apposition) to refer to the same person or thing.

   Mr Miller, the Sales Director, will visit us next Thursday. (Cambridge English: Business 1; German)

   Yesterday my boyfriend and I decided to go on a cycling holiday to visit some places in the country near Eboli, the town where we live. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Italian)

   She has come with me and two more friends, Peter and Gorha. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Spanish - European)

Learners at the B1 level can also form complex noun phrases with adverb + adjective + noun.

   It took us a very long time but it was great fun! (Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools; Polish)

   They made really good friends. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Spanish - Latin American)

Learners also form noun phrases with such a + adjective + singular noun and such + adjective + plural noun in order to give emphasis.

   I’ve never been in such a terrible situation. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Russian)

   Also, we both liked to read and that was why we were such good friends. (Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools; Chinese)

   I had never worn such high heels before. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Albanian)

Complex noun phrases also appear in the learner work at the B1 level with prepositional phrases after the main noun.

   It was a beautiful red dress with blue flowers on the back. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; French)

   Yesterday a TV company came to our school to make a film about Bavarian pupils. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; German)

   I received your letter and you asked me about the future of my town. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Portuguese)

Learners are also able to use a clause with a present perfect or past perfect as a superlative noun phrase complement to talk about uniqueness.

   The best book I’ve read is “The Da Vinci Code”. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Italian)

   It was the best decision you had ever made. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Spanish - Latin American)

   In the practise match, I played against the greatest goalkeeper which I’ve ever seen. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; German)

They can also form noun phrases with an indefinite pronoun + an adjective or clause.

   You could bring something to drink. (Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools; Spanish - Latin American)

   But then there is nothing special to eat. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; German)

Finally, B1 level learners can use the noun phrase the thing in the front position, with a clause complement, to give focus to something.

   The thing I enjoyed most about it was a new computer game. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; Georgian)

   The thing I prefer there is the swimming pool because I have met someone there. (Cambridge English: Preliminary; French)

So, once the B1 level is achieved, learners have both improved on the skills developed at the A1 and A2 levels and developed entirely new skills with noun phrases. A key area of development at B1 is in learners’ use of noun phrases with possessives, which is further developed at the C1 level.