Sentences contain smaller groups of words and these groups of words don’t contain a subject and predicate and so, these don’t make complete sense by themselves and each depends on other groups.
This group of words does not contain a subject and predicate to make complete sense of it. Such group of words is known as a Phrase.
A group of words containing subject and predicate is known as a Clause.
Examples-
a. The boy rides a black horse.
b. The boy rides a horse of black colour.
c. The boy rides a horse which is of black colour.
In the sentence ‘a’, ‘black’ is an adjective giving more information about ‘horse’.
In ‘b’, ‘of black colour’ does not contain a subject and predicate. So it is a phrase qualifying the noun ‘horse’.
In ‘c’, ‘which is of black colour’ consists of a subject ‘which’ and a predicate ‘is of black colour’. So it is a clause qualifying the noun ‘horse’.
There are three kinds of phrases.
- Adjective phrase
- Adverb phrase
- Noun phrase