PHRASE vs. CLAUSE - What's the Difference? - English Grammar - Independent and Dependent Clauses

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 don't forget to subscribe to this channel and I will see you in another lesson soon

Channel: Learn English Lab

Views: 1,095,907

Keywords: ESL, Learn English, English lesson, English grammar, native speaker, vocabulary, conversation skills, IELTS, TOEFL, anglais, Englisch, inglês, engleză, إنجليزي, Angol, Learn English Lab, phrase vs clause, independent clause, dependent clause, phrase definition, what is a clause, clause examples, what is independent clause, what is dependent clause, difference between clause and phrase, noun phrase examples, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverbial phrase, preposition phrase

Id: z45UdL0WTro

Length: 8min 18sec (498 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 29 2017