Negation

One of the NICE PROPERTIES of AUXILIARY VERBS, which can have a NEGATIVE marker added to them, e.g.

You can leave -- You can't leave.

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NICE Properties

Four properties of AUXILIARY VERBS which distinguish them from main verbs, namely, Negation, Inversion, Code, and Emphasis.
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Nominal Adjective

ADJECTIVES that denote a class of entities by describing one of their ATTRIBUTES are called nominal adjectives, e.g. The poor, the sick, the elderly, my local. They can have COMPARATIVE and SUPERLATIVE forms, e.g. the best.
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Nominal Relative clause

A type of relative clause that does not have a Head word. The man who I know contains a standard relative clause with a Head noun man. In what I want is a new car, what I want is a nominal relative clause, which may be paraphrased as "the thing which I want". They are also known as independent relative clauses.
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Non-Count Nouns

A NOUN that refers to an indivisible whole. They only have SINGULAR forms. Examples include courage, butter, software. They are also called MASS NOUNS
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Nonfinite Verb

A Nonfinite verb does not carry tense agreement. The INFINITIVE, -ED PARTICIPLE and -ING PARTICIPLE are nonfinite verb forms.
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Nonfinite Clause

A clause that contains a nonfinite verb, e.g. (1) To err is human contains a to-infinitive clause. (2) I made her laugh contains a bare infinitive clause. (3) Turning the corner, I ran over the vicar contains an -ing participle clause. (4) She sat in the corner, snubbed by her colleagues contains an -ed participle clause.
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Non-Inherent Adjective

A type of ADJECTIVE that does not denote an ATTRIBUTE of a NOUN, e.g. small businessman.
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Notional Agreement

Agreement between a Subject and verb that depends upon our interpretation of the Subject, rather than its form, e.g. the government is/are useless. The agreement here depends on whether we treat government as an entity in its own right, or as a collection of people.
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Noun

A noun is a word which can inflect for number and which usually names people, places or things.
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Noun Phrase

A string of words that has a noun as its Head:

computers
the man in the moon
young people who live in Italy

NPs may take a determiner phrase as a premodifier, and PPs, to-infinitive clauses or relative clauses as postmodifiers.

Number Contrast

The difference between SINGULAR and PLURAL forms of NOUNS.
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Numeral

An OPEN CLASS of words that comprises all numbers, and is a subclass of the class of NOUNS. Different types include CARDINAL NUMERALS and ORDINAL NUMERALS. Numerals can function as NOUNS or as DETERMINERS.
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