What is a phrase?

We can clearly understand the meaning of a phrase through three important things which are referred to as following:

  •             A phrase contains a group of two or more related words.  
  •            A phrase does not contain both a subject and a verb.
  •            A phrase includes a head which identifies its nature. 
Example:

    phrase
    Group of related words
    Subject and verb
    Head and nature of the phrase
    On the table
    Three related words (on, the and table)
    No subject/No verb
    The head is on.
    The nature of the phrase is prepositional phrase.


    What are the principal types of phrases?

    Here, we are going to restrict our talk to five types of phrases.

     a.     Prepositional phrase

     A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition, (on, at, to, for, with….), and ends with a noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause which functions as the object of the preposition. The prepositional phrase is mainly used into the sentence to act either as adjective or as adverb.

    Example:
      Isabel is in the theater.

      Phrase
      Type of phrase
      Begins with
      Ends with
      Function
      In the theater
      Prepositional phrase
      Preposition (In)
      A noun (theater) which is the object of preposition (In)
      In this example, the prepositional phrase  exactly identifies where  Isabel is so that it functions as adverb


      b.     Gerund phrase

      A gerund phrase starts with a gerund that means a verb in its present participial form (verb +ing). It mainly acts as a noun, subject, subject complement, or object, in a sentence.

      Example:
        Learning languages is very useful.

        Phrase
        Type of phrase
        Begins with
        Function
        Learning languages
        Gerund phrase
        Gerund (learn+ing)
        In this example, the gerund phrase functions as a subject of the verb (be)


        c.     Participle phrase

        A participle phrase begins with a present or past participle that means a verb in its present or past participle form (verb+ing or verb+ed). It always functions as an adjective into a sentence.

        Examples:
          The man climbing a palm is my friend.
          My friend is frightened by the first scene of the film.

          Phrase
          Type of phrase
          Begins with
          function
          Climbing a palm
          Present participle phrase
          Present participle (climb+ing)
          In this example, the present participle phrase functions as an adjective
          frightened by the first scene of the film
          Past participle phrase
          Past participle (frighten+ed)
          In this example, the past participle phrase functions as an adjective

           Note:
            As we notice above there are two kinds of participles, present and past participle, so what is the difference between them?



                                   Present participle
                                      Past participle
            We mainly use present participle to describe a noun where the noun we describe should be the doer of the verb stem of the present participle; for example, here we have the noun “book”. I say “the interesting book” that means the book interests me. Look! Here the noun “book” is the doer of the verb “interest”.
            We use past participle to describe a noun which mainly affected by someone or something else, for instance, the man say, “I’m interested in the book”. It means the man is interested in the book ,It also means that the book affect the interest of the man


            d.      Infinitive phrase

            An infinitive phrase starts with an infinitive that means a preposition” to” + the verb stem or the simple form of a verb. It acts as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb in a sentence.
              
            Example:
              I would like to learn Spanish.

              Phrase
              Type of phrase
              Begins with
              function
              To learn Spanish
              Infinitive phrase
              To + learn (verb stem)
              In this example, the infinitive phrase functions as a noun


              e.      Appositive phrase

              An appositive phrase is a noun phrase which contains a noun as a head and sits next the noun it describes or renames. Also, it is usually put between commas, parentheses, or dashes.

              Example:
                Noam Chomsky, a famous linguist, is the father of modern linguistics.

                phrase
                Type of phrase
                The head of the phrase
                function
                A famous linguist
                Appositive phrase
                linguist
                In this example, the appositive phrase functions as a noun