Phrases and clauses

Phrases

In syntactical analysis, a phrase is a unit of one or more words doing the job (function) of a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, or preposition. Phrases can be a single word because a noun can function the same as a number of words. For example, “The smelly cat meowed” and “Cats meow”.

Phrases can contain phrases. The function that we’re analyzing–the noun, verb, adjective, etc–determines what we call the phrase (ex: noun phrase). We define the function by the head word we are looking for.

Head word

Each phrase has a head word. The head word is the word that defines the phrase and its job. It’s the central word that determines the syntactic type and function of the phrase.

Less essential words are called dependents because they rely on the head word of the phrase.

Noun phrase

The noun phrase is a unit that has a noun or pronoun at its head:

The brown dog barked.
Dogs barked.

The brown dog functions as a single unit.

Pronouns work the same as a noun because their syntactical function is identical:

It barked.
He barked.
The cat chased him.

Verb phrase

The verb phrase is a unit that has a verb at its head:

The brown dog barked.

Verb phrases can be longer and more complicated:

The brown dog was barking.
The brown dog was barking a lot.
The brown dog had been barking very often.

Adjective phrase

The adjective phrase is a unit that has an adjective at its head:

The brown dog was barking.
The dark brown dog was barking.
The very dark brown dog was barking.
The dog was brown.
The dog was chestnut brown.

Attributive adjective

When the adjective is in front of the noun, its called an attributive adjective:

The brown dog was barking.
The dark brown dog was barking.

Predicate adjective

When the adjective comes after the noun, its called an predicate adjective:

The dog was brown.
The dog was chestnut brown.

Adverb phrase

The adverb phrase is a unit that has an adverb at its head:

The absolutely crazy dog barked.

This adverb phrase is also part of the adjective phrase, absolutely crazy, which is part of a larger noun phrase, The absolutely crazy dog.

Remember that adverbs can modify both verbs and other adverbs:

The dog barked unbelievably loudly.

Prepositional phrase

Prepositional phrases almost always pair a preposition with an object, and the object is a noun phrase:

A man of means.
The cat is in the hat.
The sad thing about Jack.
Give it to me, now!
What are you talking about? (reworded: About what are you talking?)

A preposition isn’t always immediately before its object, so focus on function, not location.

Clauses

A clause is a unit that has a subject and a verb:

Rick cried.

Coordinate clause

When two or more clauses of equal grammatical status that can stand alone as sentences are connected with a coordinating conjunction, such as:

Subordinate clause

When clauses are connected with a subordinating conjunction. There is a main/independant clause that can stand on its own as a sentence and a subordinate/dependent clause that cannot:

Rick cried (main clause)

[after he watched a movie]. (subordinate clause)

Examples of subordinating conjunctions:

after
than
if
when

Clauses and sentences

The number of clauses in a sentence and how they relate to each other determine whether the sentence is simple, compound, or complex.

Five basic sentence structures

Structure	Example	Description
subject + verb	Sara smiled.	The verb is intransitive, which means that it does not take an object.
subject + verb + direct object	Jane sang songs.	The verb is transitive, so it needs an object. The object is a noun phrase that receives the action of the verb–it is acted upon by the verb.
subject + verb + indirect object + direct object	Jane sang John a love song.	An indirect object is a prepositional phrase with the preposition removed, and the remainder moved directly preceding the direct object. You can rewrite the example sentence as “Jane sang a love song to John”. The omitted prepositional phrase is commonly to or for.
subject + verb + subject predicative	Sara is fancy.	A subject predicative, also known as a subject complement, is a grammatical component that follows a linking/copular verb that appears in the predicate and provides additional information about the subject of the sentence. The subject predicative does not receive the action of the verb, it is commonly an adjective phrase or a noun phrase. Main copular verbs are be, verbs of seeming, becoming, and the seven senses.
subject + verb + direct object + object predicative	Jan found the movie boring.	The predicate describes the action or state of the subject, but the object predicative–also called the object complement–describes or modifies the object of the verb, not the subject of the verb.

Simple sentence

A simple sentence has one clause, with or without other elements:

Rick cried
Rick cried about the game.
Rick cried to Sally about the game yesterday.

Compound sentence

A compound sentence has more than one clause that is linked with a coordinating conjunction. Each clause is of equal grammatical status, and is an independent clause:

We sang songs and we danced.

Complex sentence

A complex sentence has two or more clauses that are not of equal grammatical status. The clauses are unequal when one can stand alone as a sentence, but another clause cannot. They mix one or more independent clauses with one or more dependent clauses. These unequal clauses are joined by a subordinating conjunction such as:

since
when
as
if
because

[Because you paid for tickets to the game], I’ll buy the beer.

Imperative sentences

Imperatives are commands that imply the subject, which is always you:

Go. (You go.)
Stop. (You stop.)

Adverbials

Optional items consisting of words (commonly adverbs), phrases (commonly prepositional phrases), or clauses that you can remove from the sentence without harming its core structure or changing its grammatical status.

The band played a concert in Panama.
David ate his lunch at the table.
Barney reads books slowly.
I saw Jane yesterday. (yesterday is an adverb)

Adverbials are optional and distinct from the main clause. They are not adjunct adverbs, adverbs that modify actions. Adjunct adverbs are part of phrases that make up the clause and refer directly to a word or phrase:
When the speaker began, John quickly stopped talking and closely listened. (adjunct adverbs)
John stopped talking at some point today. (adverbial)