Sentence, Clause, Phrase

What is a sentence in English?

How can we identify phrases and clauses in English?

Well, I've been doing research on the net and I've found this important collaborative work.

Here you are:

By Daniel Scocco:

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.

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…”

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.

From: DailyWritingTips

Now, let's learn about

Complex sentences

A complex sentence is used to put across more detailed ideas. A complex sentence contains one main clause that can make sense on its own, and one or more minor clauses that are linked to it.

When I arrived the big dog barked.

The main clause is the 'big dog barked' because it has a subject and a verb and makes sense by itself.

The minor clause is 'When I arrived'. Although it is a clause with a subject and a verb, it doesn't make sense on its own, it needs a main clause.

We can add more minor clauses to make a more complex sentence.

When I arrived the big dog barked because it was lonely.

We can even split the main clause with a minor clause and still have a complex sentence.

When I arrived the big dog which was lonely barked. 

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk

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