Level Three: Phrases

A phrase is a group of words, but it acts like one word, like a single part of speech. It can act like an adjective, or an adverb, or a noun. Phrases do not contain subjects and verbs.

Grammar Town 80 Three Kinds of Phrases

Do not fall prey to the evil stereotypes about how difficult Prepositional Phrases the phrases are. Prepositional phrases always begin The verbal phrases are learnable; there with prepositions, and they act are only three kinds, like modifiers (like adjectives or adverbs). and each one can be defined in ene Like an adjective: the bus at the corner sentence. Students Like an adverb: they swam after school learn harder things than this every Like adjective: the letter for him and her. day in math. The verbals are critical to understanding the other three levels of Appositive Phrases grammar. Appositive phrases are interrupting definitions that are put (pos) beside (apo) what they define. They act like nouns or adjectives. Robert, the new student, arrived late. The viaduct, an old Roman design, was still in use.

Verbal Phrases Verbals are verby words that are not used as verbs. There are three kinds of verbals: gerunds, participles, and infinitives. Gerunds: nouns made out of -ing verbs. Thinking is fun. Participles: adjectives made out of verbs. Thinking quickly, the ice cream man filled the cone. Completely broken, the gate swung freely. Infinitives: nouns or modifiers made from the to form of the verb. To think is fun. (noun) The man to see is Howard. (adjective) He lived to read. (adverb) Note: We think of the infinitive as one word. Example: To think is regarded as one word.

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[' Key Points about Prepositional Phrases

A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition that shows the relationship between its object, which will usually be a noun or object pronoun, and some other word in the sentence. Prepositional phrases are always modifiers. If a prepositional phrase is acting as an adjective, it comes immediately after the noun or pronoun it modifies:

The center of the old town needed repairs.

If it acts as an adverb, it can come in a number of places, including at the beginning of a sentence:

From the start Sarah led the race.

Notice that prepositional phrases do not have subjects and their predicates. No phrases have them. The typical prepositional phrase will begin with a preposition, then have an adjective that modifies a noun: on the sidewalk.

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'I"" 'I' Key Points about Appositive Phrases

Appositive phrases are called appositives APPOSE and JUXTAPOSE because they are apposed. are synonyms; they both mean Apposed means put beside, to put beside. JUXTAPOSE is from pos, put, and apo, beside. more common. An appositive phrase is a graceful way of juxtaposing a quick explanation or definition so your reader is not confused.

The mayor, a genial shopkeeper, was reelected.

Because appositive phrases are interrupting definitions, there is a comma rule for them; there should be commas before and after the appositive or appositive phrase:

Front Street, the cobblestone avenue, is peaceful.

Notice that appositive phrases do not have subjects and predicates. Also, there can be a one-word appositive, or even a date or state appositive (see below); it is not always a group of words, but it still needs two commas.

March 10, 1937, was sunny and clear. Saratoga Springs, New York, is a graceful town.

Grammar Town 83 The old furniture shop, a former stable,

=-appositive phrase=- was at the west end of Front Street, ---prep. phrase-- ---prep. phrase-c-> and was only open on Saturdays. --prep. phrase-- Collapsing slowly,the shop needed ---participial phrase- fixing up, but the owner did not want =gerundphrase-- to spend the money. -----infinitive phrase---

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Key Points about Verbal Phrases

Verbals show how creative our minds are. If we can take an action verb, and make a noun out of it, then we can make ideas not just about things, but also about actions. Phrase: a Verbals are not verbs in sentences, group af words that aets like a but they are still verby enough to do SINGLEpart of speech. This some very verby things. gerund phrase acts like a For example, look at this gerund phrase that noun and as the subject ef is a noun and the subject of the sentence: the verb.

Sweeping the sidewalk was the baker's morning task.

See the gerund phrase sweeping the sidewalk? Notice that the noun sidewalk is almost like a direct object. It is receiving the action of the gerund, sweeping, just as if the gerund were still a verb. When this happens, we call the noun the OBJECT of the gerund. You can also have objects of participles or infinitives:

Sweeping the sidewalk, the baker laughed. To sweep the sidewalk is a good idea.

Objects of verbals use object pronouns: Seeing him and her was fun. To see him and her is the plan. A subject is a subject, and an object is an abject. The abject ef anything will use abject pronouns.

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'''' 1111 I Other Key Points

misplaced modifiers If you put a modifying phrase in the wrong place, it will modify the wrong thing. In the sentence:

Chewing his gum eagerly, a fly flew by

the participial phrase Chewing his gum "eagerly modifies the noun fly. Because this modifier is misplaced, the sentence is ridiculous. It means that a fly is chewing gum. Better would be:

A fly flew by as Joe chewed his gum eagerly.

Right: The man with the long hair ran away. Wrong: The man ran away with the long hair.

split infinitives An infinitive like to think is regarded as one word. A prepositional phrase like to Boston is two words. We should never split the infinitive with another word, such as an adverb: to really think.

Wrong; You need to carefully think about that. Right: You need to think about that carefuny.

Grammar Town 86 A Major Key Point: subject/verb disagreement

Sometimes a phrase will come between the subject and its predicate.

The girl with the apples goes home.

Here, the subject is girl, and the predicate is goes. What often happens in this situation is that we mistakenly match the verb to the object of preposition that is next to it instead of matching the verb to its real subject. When we do this, it is a disaster:

The girl with the apples go home.

This means that the apples are going home, and the sentence no longer makes sense. If the subject is plural, its verb must be plural too:

girl goes girls go

The verb must ALWAYS agree with its subject in number (singular or plural), period. Find the real subject and verb, match them, and ignore anything in between.

Wrong: The boats on the canal is quick Right: The boats on the canal are quick.

Grammar Town 87 Answers are in the teacher manual only. Doone Phrases sentence, discuss, and then Feeding the horse was fun. do the next. Emphasize that n. adj. n. v. n. a phrase acts .--. subj.------LVP S.c. like ONE ward. ----gerund phrase---

Sam, the melancholy collie, sniffed the floor. n. adj. adj. n. v. adj. n. subj. AVP D.O. ------appositive phrase------

Well, 1n a sense I am he.

interj. prep. adj. n. pron. v. pron. subj. LVP S.c. ---prep. phrase=-c-

To exaggerate your faults 1S silly. -----n.------adj. n. v. adj. -subject------LVP S.c. infinitivephrase------

Eating the przza, Roberto laughed at the dog.

adj. adj. n. n. v. prep. adj. n. subj. AVP ---participial phrase-- ---prep. phrase-

We wanted to rebuild the old house. pron. v. n.--- adj. adj. n. subj. AVP directobject----·--.

------infinitive phrase------

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