Phrases and clauses are the most important elements of English grammar. Phrase and clause cover everything a sentence has. Clauses are the center of sentences and phrases strengthen the sentences to become meaningful. If the clauses are the pillars of a building, the phrases are the bricks. A phrase usually is always present within a clause, but a phrase cannot have a clause in it.
The basic difference between a clause and a phrase is that a clause must have a finite verb and a phrase must not.
A phrase, therefore, is a group of words which has no finite verb in it and acts to complete the sentence for making it meaningful.
“A phrase is a small group of words that form a meaningful unit within a clause.”-Oxford Dictionary
“In linguistic analysis, a phrase is a group of words (or possibly a single word) that functions as a constituent in the syntax of a sentence, a single unit within the grammatical hierarchy.”
Leave a Reply