Phrases are a single group of words (typically two or more words).
There are two mains types of phrases :
Remember, that when applying phrases to your writing, phrases, as opposed to clauses, will not stand on their own as a complete idea. Therefore, you will be using phrases to modify and add detail to your sentences.
Noun phrases contain a noun and any modifying words.
Even though knowing individual prepositions is important, prepositional phrases are used far more frequently. A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun and includes any words that come in between the two. Study the examples below.
Note how each phrase above begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun.
Prepositional phrases contain a preposition and a noun. “In the writing center” is an example of a prepositional phrase.
Take the sentence we looked at above:
We can change the clause, who was in the writing center, into a phrase by removing the modifier who and, most importantly, the verb was. We now have the phrase in the writing center. Let’s place it back in the sentence:
The crucial difference is that we no longer use a verb (was). Therefore, we have a simple prepositional phrase.
Look at a few more examples:
Prepositional phrases–made up minimally of:
–are the hardest working modifiers in the English language.
They can act like:
Because they are so robust, they can modify nouns or verbs in sentences. Prepositional phrases can add description and detail to your writing.
Absolute phrases are an important type of noun phrase to know when writing because absolute phrases modify an entire clause. They describes the whole sentence and provides detail about it.
Many phrases modify a specific word, but absolute phrases describe the whole clause that follows or comes before it.
This is helpful to you because you may like a sentence that you have written, but you want to add more detail. You can place an absolute phrase before or after the sentence as it’s written.
Here are some examples:
Absolute phrases are sometimes easily added to your sentences because you need not change the root sentence that you have written. Let’s say you started with the following sentence:
But we can easily add to the sentence using the parts of speech.
With an absolute phrase, we can add even more to this simple sentence.
The absolute phrase describes the whole sentence and provides detail about how the clerk monitors the customers. Absolute phrases are especially helpful when writing about something you have observed closely.
As you may have already noticed, absolute phrases are considered a type of noun phrase because they contain at least a noun and a participle.
In most cases, you will also easily be able to add modifiers and/or objects to your absolute phrases.
Absolute phrases is one of the most helpful phrases when writing because they are so easy to add to well-crafted sentences.
Appositive Phrases add detail and modify a noun.
Apposition means to place two things next to each other for explanation. With Appositive Phrases, you add layers of meaning to a sentence.
An appositive may be one word that modifies another noun (“My cousin Dan lives next door.”).
Like absolute phrases, you may add these to a sentence that you’ve already written. Appositive phrases can be added to the beginning or end of a sentence like absolute phrases, but they can also be added within sentences as well. Instead of containing a noun and a verb/participle, Appositive Phrases will consist of nouns and modifiers.
Here are some examples:
When using appositive phrases in the middle of a sentence note that you must use two commas, one before the phrase and one at the end, to separate it from the main sentence.
We can add subordinate clauses to appositive phrases, as in the following example:
You must always place an appositive as close to the noun it is modifying as possible. Otherwise, you may end up modifying a noun you did not intend.
Two types of verb phrases that you have already written will help you to add detail to sentences:
Because each of them begins with a certain type of verb, you will refer to them as verb phrases.
Infinitive phrases begin with the infinitive form of a verb, to+verb:
We can make phrases from these infinitives by adding detail:
We can then add these to sentences:
These same infinitive phrases can also go in a different position in the sentence to create a different emphasis. As with adverb subordinate clauses, if an infinitive phrase is placed at the end of the sentence, you do not use a comma:
Infinitive phrases will always contain and begin with to+verb and express a goal. You will find these helpful when you are writing about what you desire to have happen or are making a plea for something that needs to happen.
Participial phrases use the participial form of the verb.
Participial phrases will add action and excitement to your sentences. Look at a few examples:
Notice how these sentences are more descriptive and appealing with participial phrases. You can use present and past participial phrases to expand and to add sophistication to your sentences.