Phrases and clauses are groups of words that act as a unit and perform a single function within a sentence. A phrase is a group of words that may have a partial subject or verb but not both, or it may have neither a subject nor a verb. Phrases never have a subject doing the action of a verb. A clause, however, is by definition a group of words that has a subject and a verb. A sentence can have any number of clauses and phrases combined together. See the examples below:
Phrases Clauses
Needing help Sarah smiled
With a green shirt She laughs at shy people
Best friend Because he gave her a puppy
On the horizon When the saints go marching in
After the devastation I waited for him
Because of her glittering smile He wants to become an engineer
Notice how each of the clauses has a subject and a verb, but the phrases do not. Some of the clauses contain phrases, like “She laughs at shy people.” “She laughs” is a clause, and “at shy people” is a phrase that complements the clause and completes the sentence.
Phrases can be any combination of words that do not combine a subject and a verb. There are many types of phrases, including noun phrases (the nice neighbor, my best friend, troops of soliders), verbal phrases (waiting for the rain to stop, have been sleeping), and prepositional phrases, which follow a preposition (after the storm, to the end of time, in the road).
You might be tempted to just assume that phrases are shorter than clauses. This is not always true. Many phrases are only two words long, but many are much longer. Look at the following sentence:
In 1833, Faraday’s experimentation with electrolysis indicated a natural unit of electrical charge, thus pointing to a discrete rather than continuous charge.
Each of the bolded segments of this sentence is a phrase. Be sure as you analyze each sentence that you are looking for a subject and a verb to decipher what is a clause and what is just a phrase.
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Answer:
Phrases and Clauses
Phrases and clauses are groups of words that act as a unit and perform a single function within a sentence. A phrase is a group of words that may have a partial subject or verb but not both, or it may have neither a subject nor a verb. Phrases never have a subject doing the action of a verb. A clause, however, is by definition a group of words that has a subject and a verb. A sentence can have any number of clauses and phrases combined together. See the examples below:
Phrases Clauses
Needing help Sarah smiled
With a green shirt She laughs at shy people
Best friend Because he gave her a puppy
On the horizon When the saints go marching in
After the devastation I waited for him
Because of her glittering smile He wants to become an engineer
Notice how each of the clauses has a subject and a verb, but the phrases do not. Some of the clauses contain phrases, like “She laughs at shy people.” “She laughs” is a clause, and “at shy people” is a phrase that complements the clause and completes the sentence.
Phrases can be any combination of words that do not combine a subject and a verb. There are many types of phrases, including noun phrases (the nice neighbor, my best friend, troops of soliders), verbal phrases (waiting for the rain to stop, have been sleeping), and prepositional phrases, which follow a preposition (after the storm, to the end of time, in the road).
You might be tempted to just assume that phrases are shorter than clauses. This is not always true. Many phrases are only two words long, but many are much longer. Look at the following sentence:
In 1833, Faraday’s experimentation with electrolysis indicated a natural unit of electrical charge, thus pointing to a discrete rather than continuous charge.
Each of the bolded segments of this sentence is a phrase. Be sure as you analyze each sentence that you are looking for a subject and a verb to decipher what is a clause and what is just a phrase.