Know The Difference Between Phrases and Clauses

As we know that English has become an international language. That’s why we must learn and understand the English language. While learning the English language, we have to make sentences. The learners should know that a sentence in the English language is divided into various parts. There is a specific purpose of each part of the sentence. Moreover, each part of the sentence has also some specific characteristics. No doubt, these parts of the sentence seem simple to us but still, there are lots of confusions. The most confusing parts of the sentence are phrase and clause. These are two different parts of the sentence. Now, the problem is that these two parts of the sentence have various similarities. These similarities make it difficult for learners to differentiate between them. Here, top dissertation writing service will try to help you understand the difference between phrases and clauses.

What Is A Clause?

It is a group of words in a sentence. This group of words consists of a subject and a verb. We try to clear this concept with the help of an example i.e. John is playing. This is a sentence. In this sentence, ‘John’ is the subject. On the other hand, ‘Playing’ is a verb. Therefore, we can say it a clause because it has a subject as well as a verb. Along with subject and verb, there should also be an object in the sentence. If a sentence consists of a verb and a subject, it should make the complete sense to the readers. It means that it should be easily understandable for the readers. While learning clause, you should also understand that there can be more than one clause in a sentence. For example, I played well but we lost. In this example, there are two clauses.

What Is A Phrase?

A phrase is opposite to a clause. As we have discussed earlier that in a sentence, subject and verb make the clause. The part of the sentence that doesn’t consist of subject and verb forms the phrase. Some examples of the phrases are ‘On the wall’ and ‘Over the head’ etc. These are also the parts of a sentence. These parts of the sentence don’t contain a verb and subject. That’s why these are called phrases. A phrase doesn’t make the complete sense of a sentence. To make the complete sense of a sentence, we have to use some other words. If a phrase is written alone, you will be confused about its meaning.

Difference Between Phrases And Clauses:

After understanding the definitions of the phrase and clause, we can easily draw the difference between phrases and clauses. The main differences between phrases and clauses are given below;

A clause is such a grammatical arrangement of the words in which a subject and a verb give the complete sense of a sentence. On the other hand, in the case of a phrase, these words stand together in the form of a conceptual unit. This conceptual unit of the words doesn’t have s subject and a verb. Moreover, it will also not make the complete sense of a sentence.
Both phrase and clause are components of a complete sentence. The only difference between them is that a clause is a component of a sentence. On the other hand, a phrase is the component of the clause.
A clause can give complete meaning to the readers. Therefore, we can also prepare a sentence with the help of a clause only. On the other hand, all the words of the phrase have individual meanings but when they are collected, they don’t give a complete sense to the readers. It means that we can’t create a complete sentence just with the help of a phrase.
As we know that subject and predicate are two essential parts of the speech. A clause is such a part of the sentence which contains both the parts of the speech. As it has both subject and predicate, therefore, it gives the complete idea to the readers. On the other hand, a phrase doesn’t have these parts of the speech. Without these two parts of the speech, a phrase doesn’t give a complete idea to the readers.

If a student is preparing for the competitive exams, the interviewers will ask some questions about the clause and phrase. They can provide some examples to the candidates and candidates have to differentiate between the phrases and clauses. The only way to give the possible answers to the interviewers is that students have full command on the basic concepts of phrases and clauses.