Thematic Unit: Memories - Grammar: Phrases & Clauses Lesson

Phrases & Clauses

Phrase: a group of words (not containing both a subject and a verb) working together as one part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) in a sentence.

Clause: a group of words that contains both a subject and a verb/predicate. An independent clause may either be a complete sentence standing alone, or it may be part of larger sentence. A dependent (or subordinate) clause must be part of a larger sentence that also includes an independent clause. Like a phrase, a dependent clause may function as a single part of speech (noun, adjective, adverb) in a sentence.

Classifying phrases and clauses

Sorting Image There are many, overlapping ways to classify phrases and clauses. Think of classifying food: you could group foods by color, by nutritional value, by which meal of the day we usually eat them, by where they are produced, or by whether they are meats, fruits, vegetables, etc. A tomato could be classified in the 'red' group AND in the 'fruit' group. The point is that we don't let it bother us that there are many ways of classifying food, and it doesn't need to bother us that phrases or clauses can also be classified various ways.

One way of classifying phrases and clauses is by which part of speech they are serving as in the sentence. Thus, we can have noun, verb, adverb, and adjective phrases (or clauses).

Another way is by the structure (the kinds and sequences of words). We may identify prepositional phrases, verbal phrases (of which there are three sub-types), and others.

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