Many people are confused about the
difference between phrases and clauses.
Are these different grammar items or are
they just two names for the same thing?
That's what we're going to talk about in
this video.
Now before we start just remember: if you have any questions at
all you just have to ask me in the
comments section below and I will talk
to you there.
So in this lesson we're going to learn
the difference between phrases and
clauses. But first let's talk about how
phrases and clauses are similar.
They're similar in this way: both of
these refer two groups of words that are
meaningful. Look at these examples: near
my home or Dexter won the bicycle race
You can see that these are meaningful
so one of them is afraid and the other
is a clause
OK so what's the difference between them? Well
the difference is this: a clause is a
group of words with a subject-verb
combination so Dexter won the bicycle
race is a clause because it has a
subject - Dexter and a verb - won is the past
tense of win so this is a clause. A
phrase is a group of words without a
subject-verb combination. So near my home
is a phrase because there's no subject
verb combination
It's very simple but keep this important
difference in mind - a clause has a
subject-verb combination and a phrase
does not. So now let me show you some
more examples so that you can learn how
to easily identify phrases and clauses
Alright all the words that you see on
the screen are phrases. You'll notice
that in all of these there's no subject
verb combination and these examples also
show the most common types of phrases
For example my two wonderful dogs is
a phrase focusing on the noun dogs and
the phrase the tallest building in the
world focuses on the noun building so we
say that these are noun phrases.
What about couldn't go and will be
working? Can you guess what type of
phrases these are? These are
verb phrases because they only have verbs
in them. All of these words are verbs
similarly we have the adjective phrases
very friendly and afraid of the dark
we say that these are adjective phrases
because the focus is on friendly and
afraid - the other words in these phrases
are only helping the main words and the
main words are adjectives. Really fast
and much quicker are adverb phrases
because the adverbs fast and quicker are
the focus of these phrases and finally
what about near the post office and on
the 29th? Do you know? These are preposition
phrases because each of these tells us
about a place or about time using the
prepositions near and on. These are the
most common types of phrases that you
will come across and once again remember
these are phrases because they don't
have a subject verb combination. So let's
now look at some examples of clauses
like I said a clause is just like a
phrase - it's a group of words but a
clause has a subject verb combination
now in English there are many different
kinds of causes but the two most
important that you need to know about
are independent and dependent clauses
let's start with the independent clause
this is simply a clause that can stand
alone as a sentence. For example He ate
dinner
this is a clause because it has a
subject - he - and a verb - ate - past tense of
eat and it's independent because it can
be a sentence on its own. So what's a
dependent clause then? Well it's a clause
that is it has a subject-verb
combination but it cannot be a sentence
by itself. For example When James got
home is a dependent clause - it has a
subject - James - and a verb - got - but if you
think about it it's not a complete
sentence because if I said when James
got home you will ask okay then what?
What happened?
So you see the sentence isn't complete
so this is a dependent clause. To make it
a full sentence you have to combine it
with an independent clause such as When
James got home he ate dinner. In this
next example Please send me the report
tomorrow if you can - the sentence has two
clauses - here the first clause is
independent
Please send me the report tomorrow and
the second clause is dependent - if you
can. Usually dependent clauses will have
words like when while whenever before
after
because if unless and so on
Really simple isn't it? OK now I'm going
to give you a small test to see you can
identify phrases and clauses correctly
OK on the screen there are 10 items and
for each item I want you to say if it's
a phrase or clause. You get bonus points
if you can say what type of phrase or
clause. Pause the video if you want,
think about your answers and then play
the video again and check
OK let's discuss the answers - number one
in the garden is a phrase because there's
no subject verb combination and it's a
preposition phrase because it tells us
about a place using the preposition in
number two is a clause - it has a subject
Charlie and a verb - won
this is a dependent clause because it
starts with while and it's not a
complete sentence. Number three is also a
clause but it's an independent clause
because it could be a sentence by itself
number four is not a clause it's a phrase
there's no subject verb combination and
it's a noun phrase because it focuses on
the noun box. Number five is a clause and it's
an independent clause. Number six is a phrase
and it's an adjective phrase because the
focus is on hungry. Number seven is
afraid and it's a verb phrase. Number
eight is a clause and it's a dependent
clause because it's not a full sentence
Number nine is a phrase and this phrase is
an adverb phrase because the focus is
the adverbs slowly and steadily. And
finally number ten is a little tricky -
this is actually not one phrase or
clause
this is a sentence with two clauses - the
first cause Whenever I play a video game
is dependent and the second clause - it
reminds me of my childhood - is
independent
How many of those did you get right? Let
me know in the comments section, I hope
you enjoyed this lesson
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channel and I will see you in another
lesson soon