Premodifiers are words that come before the noun in a noun phrase and which modify the noun. These words provide more specific information, which is the process of modification, that helps indicate one particular instance of a noun, rather than leaving it open.

For example, the word "cat" is a noun and when used alone it can refer to any type of animal that is part of the feline family. Premodifiers can be provided to refer to a particular one as in the expresseion "the cat", or to give additional information about it such as "the large, brown cat".

There are both premodifiers and postmodifiers that can be used as part of a phrase to help modify a noun. It is important to identify them as part of the noun phrase, since any pronoun used to refer to them indicates the entire phrase and not just the noun itself. For example, in the sentence "My car is blue," the word "my" is a premodifier that specifies exactly what is being referred to by the noun "car." When a pronoun is used afterward, such as "My car is blue and it is very fast," the word "it" refers to not only "car" but to "my car" and so it replaces all premodifiers as well as the noun.