The Difference Between Phrases and Clauses

If you’re learning English, you might have heard people talk about phrases and clauses – but can you tell the difference between phrases and clauses?

Learning to identify these is crucial if you want to master English grammar. Understanding how phrases and clauses are used can help you craft better sentences and break down complex English writing to build your reading and comprehension skills.

To help you tackle this necessary subject, we’ll look at clear definitions of phrases and clauses and go over tons of phrase and clause examples.

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Phrases vs clauses

Phrases and clauses are both important parts of English grammar. But what makes a group of words a phrase versus a clause? It’s actually very simple. A phrase doesn’t have a subject or predicate, whereas a clause does. 

To put it another way, a clause is a group of words that includes a subject and verb, for example, “he went home” or “because it was raining.” 

On the other hand, a phrase is any other group of words that work together to form a single aspect of a sentence. A phrase might have a subject, or it might have a verb, but it won’t have both. Some examples of phrases are “the old taxi driver,” “eating his breakfast” or “in the car.”

Confused? Don’t worry, we’ll explain further.

Everything you need to know about phrases

To understand the difference between phrases and clauses, first you’ll need to know what a phrase is.

What are phrases?

A phrase is a group of words that forms part of a sentence but cannot stand on its own as a sentence. 

That means phrases do not contain a subject and verb (or predicate). “Very large ladybug” is an example of a phrase – on its own, it doesn’t tell us much. There is no verb to tell us what happened with the “very large ladybug.” It is just a small piece of a larger sentence.

What are the different kinds of phrases?

There are six key types of phrases in English grammar:

• Noun phrases

• Verb phrases

• Gerund phrases

• Prepositional phrases

• Adjective phrases

• Adverb phrases

Noun phrases

A noun phrase is a group of words based around a noun. It might include an article or an adjective, each of which modify the noun. Take a look at this example:

the wet cat

In this phrase, “cat” is the noun, “wet” is an adjective, and “the” is an article. Together, they make a noun phrase.

Verb phrases

A verb phrase is a group of words based around the primary verb in a sentence. These words might include helping verbs or adverbs. Here’s an example:

will start running faster

Together, the verb and any other words in the verb phrase form what’s commonly called the predicate.

Gerund phrases

A gerund phrase is a group of words including a gerund, its object (or objects) and any modifiers. Gerunds, as you may recall, are verb forms ending in -ing and acting as nouns.

Here’s a gerund phrase:

driving slowly past your house

Prepositional phrases

A prepositional phrase is a phrase with a preposition followed by a noun, pronoun or gerund and any modifiers.

In the example below, "over” is the preposition that begins the phrase.

over the snowy hill

Adjective phrases

An adjective phrase is an adjective and its modifiers.

a few really fantastic

In an adjective phrase, two or more words work together to function as one adjective.

Pro Tip 1: An adjective phrase is usually part of a noun phrase when used in a sentence, but it is not the same thing. A noun phrase is a noun plus the group of words that modify the noun. It can have one or more adjectives or no adjectives at all.

I bought an eggplant.

In the example above, “an eggplant” is a noun phrase because “an” is an article working with “eggplant” to act as a noun.

Wet eggplant is unpleasant.

In this example, “wet eggplant” is a noun phrase, but it doesn’t contain an adjective phrase because “wet” is just a single word – it’s not a phrase.

Again, an adjective phrase is when two or more words work together to function as one adjective, as in the following example:

I found a surprisingly wet eggplant.

“A surprisingly wet eggplant” is a noun phrase and “a surprisingly wet” is an adjective phrase, because the three words are a phrase working together to describe “eggplant.”

Adverb phrases

An adverb phrase is an adverb and any of its modifiers. Here are two examples:

very quietly

rather easily

Pro Tip 2: An adverbial phrase is any phrase that acts as an adverb in a sentence, meaning it modifies the verb. Prepositional phrases like “after lunch” and “behind the school” are both prepositional and adverbial phrases – they are prepositional phrases because they start with a preposition, and they are adverbial phrases because they act like an adverb. In any case, they’re all phrases!

The table below shows some more examples of each type of phrase.

Examples of phrases

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Everything you need to know about clauses

Now you know what a phrase is, but what is a clause? And how is it different from a phrase? Let’s take a look.

What are clauses?

Clauses are groups of words that contain everything needed for a complete sentence: a subject and a verb (or predicate). 

You need to understand clauses to understand sentence structure. From simple to compound-complex sentences, every sentence is made up of some combination of independent and dependent clauses.

Independent clauses

Independent clauses are, in and of themselves, complete sentences. If you separate them out of a sentence, they can stand on their own as sentences. They contain a subject and a predicate.

For example:

I went outside.

The dog barked loudly.

Dependent clauses

Dependent clauses are just like independent clauses, except they contain a word or phrase that makes them dependent on another clause to have a complete meaning. A dependent clause does not work on its own as a sentence, but it does still contain a subject and a predicate.

For example:

When the meeting was over

Because he saw a squirrel

Typically, dependent clauses are easy to spot because they begin with a subordinating conjunction (such as “in these cases,” “when” and “because”). If you removed the subordinating conjunction, the clause could form a complete sentence.

The table below shows a few examples of dependent and independent clauses.

Examples of clauses

Recognizing clauses in a sentence

Clauses are easy to spot once you know what you’re looking for, because they always contain a complete sentence (with or without a subordinating conjunction), whereas phrases are groups of words without a subject or predicate.

Let’s take a look at one quick example.

When he saw the grumpy old librarian, sweet John went quickly and quietly to the back of the library.

This sentence contains two clauses:

Dependent clause: When he saw the grumpy old librarian, 

Independent clause: sweet John went quickly and quietly to the back of the library.

And several different kinds of phrases:

Adjective phrases: the grumpy old; the back of the

Noun phrases: the grumpy old librarian; sweet John; the back of the library

Adverb phrase: quickly and quietly

Verb phrase: went quickly and quietly

Phrase and clause examples

Practice identifying clauses and phrases with this handy chart.

Examples of phrases vs clauses

Practice identifying phrases vs clauses

Now that you know what a phrase is and what a clause is and have seen examples of each, let’s practice identifying phrases and clauses. Identify as many clauses and phrases as you can in the following sentences.

1. After the heavy tropical rain, the birds started singing sweetly.

2. While my stinky older brother played video games, I went to play games outdoors with the cool new neighbors.

3. The sneaky aging spy met his old Soviet contact by the crumbling Berlin Wall.

Remember, clauses can contain multiple kinds of phrases!

Answer key

1. Dependent clause: After the heavy tropical rain

Independent clause: the birds started singing sweetly

Noun phrase: the heavy tropical rain

Adjective phrase: the heavy tropical

Verb phrase: started singing sweetly

2. Dependent clause: While my stinky older brother played video games

Independent clause: I went to play games outdoors with the cool new neighbors

Noun phrase: my stinky older brother

Adjective phrase: my stinky older

Verb phrase: played video games

Verb phrase: went to play games outdoors

Prepositional phrase: with the cool new neighbors

Noun phrase: the cool new neighbors

Adjective phrase: the cool new

3. Independent clause: The sneaky aging spy met his old Soviet contact by the crumbling Berlin Wall.

Noun phrase: The sneaky aging spy

Adjective phrase: The sneaky aging

Noun phrase: his old Soviet contact

Adjective phrase: his old Soviet

Prepositional phrase: by the crumbling Berlin Wall

Noun phrase: the crumbling Berlin Wall

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