Phrases and Clauses in English Grammer

Both clauses and phrases are clusters of words.

A phrase is a group of words that has neither subject nor predicate. A phrase cannot stand alone as a sentence, but is used in sentences as single parts of speech.

The door (no subject)

The man at the gate (no predicate)

Across the road (a modifier-neither subject nor predicate)

There are several types of phrases:

Prepositional phrases (most common type phrase)

They function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. These act mostly as adverbs, sometimes as adjectives or nouns. Begging with a preposition they end with a noun or pronoun.

Example:

She walked to the station. (Adverb)

With a straight face he told a lie. (Adjective)

After sunset is a good time to go jogging. (Noun)

Absolute phrases

(Noun or pronoun and a participial with modifiers)

An absolute phrase has no grammatical connection to any part a speech, instead modifier the whole of rest of the sentence.

An uncertain future looming, I resigned from the present job.

Positive phrases

David, a technically correct batsman, can also be very aggressive.

Verbal phrase:

Infinite phrases:  act as nouns.

She wanted to sing.

Participle phrase: act as adjective.

Climbing to the top of the building. He treated a jump down.

Getting admission into a business school is my goal.

Clauses

A clause is a group of words containing both a subject and a predicate.

There are two types of clauses:

 1.   An independent clause, which functions alone and is not dependent on another clause for context or function.

 2.   A dependent clause, which cannot function, is independently.

It is dependent on another clause for context or function.

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