Transcript Phrases and Clauses

Phrases and Clauses
By Lauren, Sarah, Dan and Tim
Phrases
A phrase is a group of related
words that does not include a
subject or a verb, or both. A
phrase cannot stand alone as a
sentence.
E.g.:
“On this bright and sunny Monday
morning, we are going to tell you
about Phrases and Clauses.”
Phrases
There are lots of different kinds
of phrases, including:
Prepositional phrases – these usually
tell us when or where something is
happening, e.g.:
“From the front of the class, Dan will now
tell you about Noun Phrases.”
Phrases
Noun phrases – these include nouns
and any words that modify the
nouns, e.g.:
“And now, tall, talkative Tim will talk
about Adjectival phrases.”
Phrases
Adjectival phrases – consists of a
group of words that do the job of an
adjective in modifying a noun, e.g.:
“Students, with good memories, will
remember our entertaining presentation
for years to come!”
Phrases
Adverbial phrases –these usually
provide answers to questions such as
when, where, how, why and for how
long, e.g.
“We will do our presentation in the first
ten minutes of the lesson, then Liz will
tell us about Handwriting.”
Clauses
A clause is a group of related
words that contain both a
subject and a verb/predicate.
Clauses may be able to stand
alone as a sentence, e.g.:
“Nobody really wants to listen to our
presentation, but we’re making you
anyway!”
Clauses
There are two different types of
clauses:
Main/Independent clause – these can
stand by themselves as discrete
sentences, e.g.:
“Liz asked us to do a presentation on
clauses, but we included phrases too!”
Clauses
Subordinate/Dependent clause –
these cannot stand by themselves.
They must be combined with an
independent clause in order to make
sense. E.g.:
“We want you to listen to this
presentation, because we think it will be
useful to you.”
Dependant Clauses
 There are three basic kinds of
dependent clauses, categorised
according to their function in a
sentence:
Adverbial clauses – provides further
information about what is going on in the
main clause such as where, when and why
Adjectival clauses – work like multi-word
adjectives
Noun clauses – they can do anything that
nouns can do
Misplacing Phrases and Clauses
If you accidentally misplace a
phrase or a clause in a sentence
so they don’t agree with the
subject, sometimes funny or even
embarrassing meanings and
images will result, e.g.:
Ladies, don’t forget the rummage
sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those
things not worth keeping around the
house. Bring your husbands.
Phrase or Clause?
Now see if you can figure out
whether these fragments of
sentences are phrases or clauses…
http://www.btinternet.com/~mrfie
ld/Literacy_Disk/phrase_clauses/p
hrase_clauses.htm
Bibliography
 Medwell, J., Moore, G., Wray, D. and Griffiths, V.
(2002) Primary English: Knowledge and
Understanding, Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd.
 McDowell, M. ‘Phrases and Clauses’,
http://marksesl.com/grammar/Phrases_and_Clauses.h
tm (Date accessed: 18.04.08)
 Phrases and Clauses Quiz,
http://www.btinternet.com/~mrfield/Literacy_Disk/phr
ase_clauses/phrase_clauses.htm (Date accessed:
18.04.08)
 The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation (2008)
Dangling Phrases and Clauses,
http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/?p=79 (Date
accessed: 18.04.08)
 Yates, I. (1994) How to be brilliant at Grammar,
Leamington Spa: Brilliant Publications