What is the difference between a phrase and a clause? I tried looking this in dictionary but can not identify the difference. It would be great if I could get an example and formula of what makes a phrase and a clause.
asked Nov 21 '10 at 20:42
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There's no such thing as Santa Phras. – Hot Licks Oct 26 '15 at 19:55
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A succinct and very easy to understand explanation – Mari-Lou A May 20 '16 at 21:06
The short answer: clauses contain a subject and its verb, while phrases do not. Note that phrases may contain nouns and verbals, but won't have the noun as the verb's actor.
The long answer: see this page from the University of Chicago which has several examples.
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2This is what I learned at school. However, Wikipedia says, “In ‘Eating this cake is easy,’ ‘eating this cake,’ although traditionally known as a phrase, is referred to as a non-finite clause in modern linguistics.” Note that “eating this cake” does not contain a subject. I am not sure if Wikipedia is correct about this or not. – Tsuyoshi Ito Nov 22 '10 at 15:03
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IN other words a clause may be a sentence while a phrase is not? – Joshua Partogi Nov 22 '10 at 22:58
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@jpartogi - that's accurate yes. A clause may or may not be a sentence (depending on if it is a dependent or independent clause), while a phrase can not be. – Dusty Nov 22 '10 at 23:21
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From: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/sentences-clauses-and-phrases
sentence:
- group of words that makes complete sense
- contains a main verb
- begins with a capital letter
- usually ends in a punctuation like period
.or exclamation mark! - can contain multiple clauses, separated by conjunctions like
and, punctuation like commas,or stuff likeif ... then,who,that
He is the author who has been writing a very good book. [clause 1] [separator] [clause 2]clause:
- group of words that contains a verb
- contains phrases
phrase:
- small group of words that forms a meaningful unit within a clause or another phrase.
- many types, including:
- noun phrase:
a very good book - adjective phrase:
very good - verb phrase:
has been writing
- noun phrase:
answered Jun 4 '14 at 10:18
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