PHRASE,CLAUSE AND SENTENCES

Phrases

A group of two or more grammatically linked words that do not have subject and predicate is a phrase. For example:

The girl is at home, and tomorrow she is going to the amusement park.

You can see that “the amusement park” is a phrase located in the second clause of the complete sentence above.

Phrases act like parts of speech inside clauses. That is, they can act as nouns, adjectives, adverbs and so on.

A phrase is a collection of words that may have nouns or verbals, but it does not have a subject doing a verb. The following are examples of phrases:

• leaving behind the dog
• smashing into a fence
• before the first test
• after the devastation
• between ignorance and intelligence
• broken into thousands of pieces
• because of her glittering smile

In these examples above, you will find nouns (dog, fence, test, devastation, ignorance, intelligence, thousands, pieces). You also have some verbals (leaving, smashing), but in no case is the noun functioning as a subject doing a predicate verb. They are all phrases.
 

Clauses

Sentences can be broken down into clauses. For example:

The boy is going to the school, and he is going to eat there.

This is a complete sentence composed of two clauses. There are mainly two types of clauses: independent clauses and subordinate clauses.

Independent clauses act as complete sentences, while subordinate clauses cannot stand alone and need another clause to complete their meaning. For example:

Independent clause: “The boy went to the school.”

Subordinate clause: “After the boy went to the school…”

A Clause is a collection of words that has a subject that is actively doing a verb. The following are examples of clauses:

·         since she laughs at diffident men

·         I despise individuals of low character

·         when the saints go marching in

·         Obediah Simpson is uglier than a rabid raccoon

·         because she smiled at him.

In the examples above, we find either a noun or a pronoun that is a subject (bold-print and red) attached to a predicate verb (underlined and purple) in each case:

·         since she laughs at diffident men

·         I despise individuals of low character

·         when the saints go marching in

·         Obediah Simpson is uglier than a rabid raccoon

·         because she smiled at him

If the clause could stand by itself, and form a complete sentence with punctuation, we call the clause an independent clause. The following are independent clauses:

• I despise individuals of low character
• Obediah Simpson is uglier than a rabid racoon

Dependent clauses have a subject doing a verb, but they have a subordinate conjunction placed in front of the clause. That subordinate conjunction means that the clause can't stand independently by itself and become a complete sentence. Instead, the dependent clause is dependent upon another clause--it can't make a complete sentence by itself, even though it has a subject doing a verb. Here are some examples of dependent clauses:

• since she laughs at diffident men
• when the saints go marching in
• because she smiled at him

Sentences

Sentences are made of two parts: the subject and the predicate.

The subject is the person or thing that acts or is described in the sentence. The predicate, on the other hand, is that action or description.

Complete sentences need both the subject and the predicate. 

examples :

When do llamas prance in moonlight?
I have an awesome cell phone.
I give you credit for asking a good question.
My name is not Bob, Debbie, or Joe.
I wish I had a carbonated beverage.

sumber : http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/gram_clauses_n_phrases.html