Phrases, Clauses and Sentences

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Phrases, Clauses and Sentences

Phrases, Clauses and Sentences

Phrases, Clauses and Sentences are the most


important structural units of language. They provide
structure and meaning to almost all the languages.
The phrases and clauses provide a sense to a
sentence. 
A complete understanding of the structural
parameters is crucial to the understanding of the
meaning of sentences. Here we will study all of the
three components of a sentence structure, one by
one. Let us begin with phrases.
Phrase

Any group of meaningful words that don’t make complete


sense is a phrase. If taken alone i.e. without other words,
it will not be meaningful at all. Preposition and a 
However, a phrase occurs inside a sentence as its
structural part.
Some of the examples of phrases are: in ten steps, the
great man, a pink flower, the thick canopy, expansion
term, etc. Phrases are of several types as follows:
Prepositional Phrase
Noun Phrase
Verb Phrase
Prepositional Phrase: 

This group of words begin with a preposition. The


preposition precedes a noun or a pronoun or
something which acts as a noun or a pronoun. Let us
see some examples.
1. Eid is a wonderful occasion. 
2. She was lost at sea. 
3. I am writing this essay for the entire class. 
The entire prepositional phrase acts as an adverb or
an adjective most of the times.
Noun Phrase:

 
This is a phrase that acts as a noun in a sentence. A
noun or a pronoun and its modifiers make up a noun
phrase.
For example, The man takes a bus every day to
work. Arif has a very beautiful bag with him. 
Verb Phrase: 

This phrase will contain a main verb and one or more


helping verb. These two will have a link that connects
them together. This phrase will define the various times
of the action in a sentence.
For example:
1. The car is moving in a circle.
2. Will he be eating the entire buffet?
3. How are you doing? 
These are some of the common examples and the
structure is auxiliary/modal verb + auxiliary verb +
auxiliary verb + main verb (as in the sentence above).
Clause

A clause is also a group of words but this group must


contain the subject and a predicate. Hence, a clause
can make complete sense even when present outside
the sentence. A clause is that part of a  sentence that
contains the subject and the predicate.
For example, I have a dog. The snow is
falling since yesterday. Clauses are of following
types:
1. Main or Independent Clause
2. Subordinate or Dependent Clause
Main or Independent Clause

The main clause is that part of a sentence that not


only contains the subject and the predicate but also
makes perfect sense if we take it out of the sentence.
in other words we can say that this clause does not
need a context to make sense. For example:
 China is growing at a very fast rate and this
has surprised many economists. The clauses in
bold are independent clauses.
Subordinate or Dependent Clause:

 A subordinate or a dependent clause must also contain the


subject and the predicate. The only condition is that these
kinds of clauses won’t make proper sense without another
clause. The dependent clause depends on the main clause
for deriving a proper meaning. Let us see some examples:
1. The country is going from bad to worse. 
2. Asif has a dog who can stand on two legs. 
3. That is the umbrella which I bought online. 
4. Iran has a very beautiful culture which is also one of
the oldest cultures in the world. 
The words in bold are the subordinate clauses.
Sentence and Sentence Structure

We define a sentence as a collection of words that make a certain


intended sense. The definition is also sometimes put as a collection
or group of words that make sense to a reader. Grammatically, we
say that a sentence must have a predefined structure. A sentence
may contain a subject, a predicate, verbs and auxiliary verbs etc.

A sentence could be a command, a statement, an exclamation, a


question. It has a main clause and sometimes many clauses with
at least one main clause. The sentence has to end with a full stop
and must have a finite verb in it. For example: Wait here. Put it
on. I am a very strong person but I also need to know more. The
sentence structure has the following basic parts:
1. Subject: About which something is being said.

2. Predicate: Tells us something about the subject.


 Ali jumped.
Ali is subject and jumped is predicate.

3. Direct object: A person or thing that is affected by the


verb.
 Jan hit the ball.
Jan (subject) hit (verb) the ball (Direct Object)

4. Indirect object: Usually followed by direct objects.


 He gave me the book.
The direct object is book, and indirect object is me.
5. The object of the preposition: Functions as a
noun or pronoun and comes right after the
preposition.

6. Verbs: Indicates action, the occurrence of


something or state of being.

7. Phrases: Makes sense but not complete sense,


thus can’t stand alone.

8.Complements: It provides complete meaning to a


subject, an object or a verb.
Thanks

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