As a general rule, if you are not certain whether a group of words is a clause or phrase, break down the words into the parts of speech to help you decide. If there is a subject and a verb with a predicate, it is a clause. If there is a noun but no verb or a verb but no noun and does not have a predicate, it is a phrase.
Differentiating between Phrases and Clauses
The main difference between phrases and clauses is that while clauses have a subject and a predicate, phrases only have one of the two. Clauses are one step closer to forming a complete sentence than phrases are. Clauses may also include phrases. Consider the following examples:
- returned his car
- while he climbs the mountain
- beneath the waterfall
- because she was so kind to everyone
Can you tell which examples are phrases and which ones are clauses?
Example one is a phrase because it only has a predicate (a verb and object) but no subject. It is missing the subject: “who returned the car?” You may think that the noun “car” is a subject here; however, “car” is a direct object, and therefore a part of the predicate.
Example three is a phrase because it only contains a predicate. Some students may think that this phrase only contains a subject: “waterfall”. However, this is not true because a subject has to perform an action. In this phrase, the waterfall isn’t doing anything! “Waterfall” is actually the object of the preposition “beneath”. Prepositions are part of predicates, so this phrase contains only a predicate.
Example two and four are clauses (although dependent) because they have both a subject and a predicate.
Example 2: Subject = he Verb = climbs
Example 4: Subject = she Verb = was
Many people get confused when they see a sentence with an implied subject; they think it is a phrase. Consider the following example:
leave the house now
Without any capitalisation or punctuation, many people may think that the above example is a phrase because they don’t see a subject. However, there is a subject in this sentence, but it is implied. The implied subject is “you” because this is an imperative sentence.
In fact, this is an independent clause. It stands by itself as a complete imperative sentence (constituting the mood that expresses a command or request). Here is the complete sentence:
Leave the house now!
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4 thoughts on “Grammar Clinic: The REAL difference between A Phrase and A Clause”
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