Clauses and Phrases

Some of the basic constituents of sentences are clauses and phrases. They help to build a complex process through which words project a particular meaning. Before differentiating them let’s learn what are clauses and phrases with some simple examples.

What are clauses?

A clause is defined as a group of words that form a sentence but not imperatively complete. The structure of a clause is = subject + predicate + verb. Types of clauses are (adverbial clauses, adjective or relative clauses, dependent and independent clauses and noun clauses)

Here are some examples of clauses:-

She sang. ( here we can identify that she is our subject and sang is both verb and the predicate, this is an independent clause)
While she is acting, the crowd cannot stop their tears with the intensity of the situation (here there are two clauses in a sentence as the first part of the sentence depends on the other.)

Now,

what are phrases?

A phrase is completely different from the clause. It can be described as two or more words together, which doesn’t contain any subject or verb or predicate in a sentence. A phrase is always dependent. And even in some cases we find it within the clauses where it simplifies and gives a proper shape to the sentence (Types of phrases are, gerund phrases, infinitive phrases, noun phrases, participle phrases, prepositional phrases and verb phrases)

For example:-

The party was held at a marriage hall.

(Marriage hall is a prepositional phrase which is why we can see that it doesn’t have a subject or predicate and is dependent on the other part of the sentence)

While she was posing, people couldn’t take off their eyes from her.

(This is again a prepositional phrase which is engulfed within an independent clause. Similarly, as in the previous sentence it doesn’t have any subject or predicate and also it is dependent upon the other part of the sentence)