CLAUSES and PHRASES in Sentences

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CLAUSES and PHRASES in Sentences

The difference between clauses and phrases can sometimes be confusing for learners. Below is a brief explanation.

CLAUSES

- A clause is a part of a sentence with a subject-verb unil that can function as a complete sentence on its own.

A clause can contain one or more phrases.

PHRASES

- A phrase is a group of words, without a subject-verb unit, that provides extra information.

Phrases con act as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and so on

SENTENCES

Sentences in English can be brief or more complex.

They can contain any number of clauses and phrases combined together.

Sentences with clauses

- She arrived. (one clause)

- She arrived and he greeted her (2 clauses)

- She arrived, he opened the door and he greeted her (3 clauses)

- She arrived he opened the door he greeted her and he Invited her in (4 clauses)

Sentences with phrases:

- A group of four people entered the room (noun phrase)

- Children are usually full of life (adjectival phrase)

- He arrived 30 minutes ago (time phrase)

- She acted with determination. (adverbial phrase)

- I'd like to travel around the world (prepositional phrase)

Sentence with 3 clauses and 4 phrases

Cakes and Pastries (noun phrase) were put on the table (prepositional phrase).

and the children ate them quickly and noisily (adverbial phrase) until there were only a few crumbs (noun phrase) lelt