PHRASE vs. CLAUSE - What's the Difference? - English Grammar - Independent and Dependent Clauses

Many people are confused about the

difference between phrases and clauses.

Are these different grammar items or are

they just two names for the same thing?

That's what we're going to talk about in

this video.

Now before we start just remember: if you have any questions at

all you just have to ask me in the

comments section below and I will talk

to you there.

So in this lesson we're going to learn

the difference between phrases and

clauses. But first let's talk about how

phrases and clauses are similar.

They're similar in this way: both of

these refer two groups of words that are

meaningful. Look at these examples: near

my home or Dexter won the bicycle race

You can see that these are meaningful

so one of them is afraid and the other

is a clause

OK so what's the difference between them? Well

the difference is this: a clause is a

group of words with a subject-verb

combination so Dexter won the bicycle

race is a clause because it has a

subject - Dexter and a verb - won is the past

tense of win so this is a clause. A

phrase is a group of words without a

subject-verb combination. So near my home

is a phrase because there's no subject

verb combination

It's very simple but keep this important

difference in mind - a clause has a

subject-verb combination and a phrase

does not. So now let me show you some

more examples so that you can learn how

to easily identify phrases and clauses

Alright all the words that you see on

the screen are phrases. You'll notice

that in all of these there's no subject

verb combination and these examples also

show the most common types of phrases

For example my two wonderful dogs is

a phrase focusing on the noun dogs and

the phrase the tallest building in the

world focuses on the noun building so we

say that these are noun phrases.

What about couldn't go and will be

working? Can you guess what type of

phrases these are? These are

verb phrases because they only have verbs

in them. All of these words are verbs

similarly we have the adjective phrases

very friendly and afraid of the dark

we say that these are adjective phrases

because the focus is on friendly and

afraid - the other words in these phrases

are only helping the main words and the

main words are adjectives. Really fast

and much quicker are adverb phrases

because the adverbs fast and quicker are

the focus of these phrases and finally

what about near the post office and on

the 29th? Do you know? These are preposition

phrases because each of these tells us

about a place or about time using the

prepositions near and on. These are the

most common types of phrases that you

will come across and once again remember

these are phrases because they don't

have a subject verb combination. So let's

now look at some examples of clauses

like I said a clause is just like a

phrase - it's a group of words but a

clause has a subject verb combination

now in English there are many different

kinds of causes but the two most

important that you need to know about

are independent and dependent clauses

let's start with the independent clause

this is simply a clause that can stand

alone as a sentence. For example He ate

dinner

this is a clause because it has a

subject - he - and a verb - ate - past tense of

eat and it's independent because it can

be a sentence on its own. So what's a

dependent clause then? Well it's a clause

that is it has a subject-verb

combination but it cannot be a sentence

by itself. For example When James got

home is a dependent clause - it has a

subject - James - and a verb - got - but if you

think about it it's not a complete

sentence because if I said when James

got home you will ask okay then what?

What happened?

So you see the sentence isn't complete

so this is a dependent clause. To make it

a full sentence you have to combine it

with an independent clause such as When

James got home he ate dinner. In this

next example Please send me the report

tomorrow if you can - the sentence has two

clauses - here the first clause is

independent

Please send me the report tomorrow and

the second clause is dependent - if you

can. Usually dependent clauses will have

words like when while whenever before

after

because if unless and so on

Really simple isn't it? OK now I'm going

to give you a small test to see you can

identify phrases and clauses correctly

OK on the screen there are 10 items and

for each item I want you to say if it's

a phrase or clause. You get bonus points

if you can say what type of phrase or

clause. Pause the video if you want,

think about your answers and then play

the video again and check

OK let's discuss the answers - number one

in the garden is a phrase because there's

no subject verb combination and it's a

preposition phrase because it tells us

about a place using the preposition in

number two is a clause - it has a subject

Charlie and a verb - won

this is a dependent clause because it

starts with while and it's not a

complete sentence. Number three is also a

clause but it's an independent clause

because it could be a sentence by itself

number four is not a clause it's a phrase

there's no subject verb combination and

it's a noun phrase because it focuses on

the noun box. Number five is a clause and it's

an independent clause. Number six is a phrase

and it's an adjective phrase because the

focus is on hungry. Number seven is

afraid and it's a verb phrase. Number

eight is a clause and it's a dependent

clause because it's not a full sentence

Number nine is a phrase and this phrase is

an adverb phrase because the focus is

the adverbs slowly and steadily. And

finally number ten is a little tricky -

this is actually not one phrase or

clause

this is a sentence with two clauses - the

first cause Whenever I play a video game

is dependent and the second clause - it

reminds me of my childhood - is

independent

How many of those did you get right? Let

me know in the comments section, I hope

you enjoyed this lesson

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channel and I will see you in another

lesson soon