Clauses and Phrases

Phrases and Clauses

by Ms. Aleena Tom

​Phrases

In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words which act together as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consist of a single word or a complete sentence.

​Clauses

​In language, a clause is a constituent that links a semantic predicand and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase, a verb with any objects and other modifiers.

​ Examples

my cousin in Richmond

= ​The question doesn’t make sense; it is a phrase.

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​my cousin lives in Richmond

​=The question makes sense, and is a clause