PHRASES AND CLAUSES

REVIEW  A sentence needs a subject and predicate (the action of the subject)  Modifiers modify nouns and verbs  Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns  Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs

PHRASES GROUPS OF RELATED WORDS

TYPES OF PHRASES  Prepositional  Appositive  Absolute  Verbal  Infinitive  Gerund  Participle

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES  Preposition + object + modifiers  After school, we went to the football game.

APPOSITIVE PHRASES  Nouns that rename another noun.  It’s like saying “I’m positive this is so”  Examples:  My mother, a lovely woman, baked cupcakes for my birthday.  My mother is concerned about her horse, Chief.

ABSOLUTE PHRASES  Noun + participle + modifier  Modifies an entire sentence instead of just a word or phrase  Examples:  Legs quivering, our old dog Gizmo dreamed of chasing squirrels.  Her arms folded across her chest, Ms. Knox warned the class about the importance of homework.

VERBAL PHRASES  Verb forms not used as verbs  Retain many properties of verbs by taking objects, having subjects, or being modified by adverbs  Types  Infinitive  Gerund  Participle

INFINITIVE PHRASE  To + verb  Can be used as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb  Example:  To read these papers will take a long time.  I am ready to write the paper now.

GERUND PHRASE  -ing form of a verb  Used as a noun  Examples:  Walking is a healthy exercise.  Proper shoes are needed for comfortable walking.

GERUND Walk ing ing is healthy

PARTICIPLE PHRASE  Noun + participle  The participle (past, present, or perfect participle) is used as an adjective  Examples:  The girl talking on the phone is Mary.  The report, accurately written, was approved by him.

PARTICIPLE report the accurately was approved by him

INDEPENDENT/DEPENDENT CLAUSES

CLAUSE  A group of related words which contain a subject and a verb  A sentence is always a clause, but a clause is not always a sentence.

INDEPENDENT CLAUSE  Meets the qualifications of a clause  Makes sense  Example:  She had not finished the paper and was sure to get a low grade.

DEPENDENT CLAUSE Definition  Meets the qualifications of a clause  Does not make sense and is regarded as a fragment  Must be accompanied by an independent clause  Example:  Because she had not finished the paper. Types  Noun clause  Adjective clause  Adverbial clause

NOUN CLAUSE  Dependent clauses used like nouns  Example:  That she had not finished the paper was the reason for her low grade.  I know what I will do today.  She wondered about what she will do next.

ADJECTIVE CLAUSE  Used to point out or describe any noun or pronoun in the sentence  A relative pronoun always introduces an adjective clause  Who, whom, whose, which, that  May be restrictive or nonrestrictive  The car which is parked by the curb belongs to me.  The car, which is parked by the curb, belongs to me.

ADVERBIAL CLAUSE  Used as adverbs  Introduced by subordinate conjunctions  After, although, as, as if, because, before, if, since, so that, that, unless, until, when, where, while  When it begins a sentence, it is set off by commas.  Example  Because he was late, she was angry.  She was angry because he was late.