The Phrase
What is a Phrase?
Phrase as a group of words, which makes sense,
but not complete sense, it called a Phrase. It is a
group of related words without a subject and a
verb.
Or - A pharse consits of two or more words
lacking a complete sence and a complete
verb. It may consits of one or more incomplete
verb the Infinitive or Participle standing on –
their own.
The Phrase
What is a Phrase?
Phrase as a group of words, which makes sence,
but not complete sense, it called a Phrase. It is a
group of related words without a subject and a
verb.
Word/group of words in underline are phrases in examples
below:
The sun rises in the east
Peter sat on a wall
The girl with red hair is an artist
The Phrase
There are five commonly occurring types
of phrase in English:
1. Noun phrase
2. Adjective pharse
3. Verb phrase
4. Adverb phrase
5. Preposition pharse
The Phrase
There are five commonly occurring
types of phrase in English:
1. A noun phrase: A noun phrase consits
of a noun and all it modifies.
Ex: The senile old man
Many case of infectious
disease
A story as old as time
The Phrase
1. A noun phrase: A noun phrase consits of a noun
and all it modifies.
Ex: The senile old man
Many case of infectious disease
A story as old as time
2. A adjective phrase: is a group of words which
modifies a noun. Like adjective, these word can be
eirther attributive (that is , usually preceding but
occasionally following a noun).
Ex: The child, laughing happily, ran out of the
door
He seened extremely pleasant
The Phrase
3. A verb phrase: A verb phrase consits of a
verb and all its modifiers
Ex: He was waiting for the rain to stop
He may be following us
4. An adverb phrase: is a group of words
which functions like an adverb, it often plays
the role of telling us when, where, why or how
an event occurred.
Ex: She sings very well
We are expecting him to come next year
The Phrase
5. A preposition phrase: begins with a preposition and
can act as a noun, an adjective or can adverb.
Ex: On the table
by the car , over the rainbow
The Phrase
A number of modern linguists use the term phrase in a “ ”
slightly different way to that described above. They
compare such sentences as:
The beautiful girl has arrived.
and:
She arrived.
Pointing out that she functions in exactly the same way “ ”
as The beautiful girl and arrived in exactly the way “ ” “ ”
as has arrived .“ ”
Concentrating on the similarity of function, they define a
noun phrase or example, as a word of words which
can function as a subject, object or complement in a
sentence:
The beautiful girl came in/ She came in
The beautiful girl looked after her father/ She looked after his
The Phrase
Similarly, a verb phrase is a word or group of
words which can function as a predicate in a
sentence:
She arrived at three. She will arrive at three.
Both uese have value. The student must be
aware of the different values attached to the
same word but must also be consistent in his
use.