ONE: PHRASES & CLAUSES Flashcards
What is a clause?
What is a phrase?
A group of words that contain neither a subject nor a predicate.
The “subject” of a sentence is what?
The actor of the sentence that has one or more nouns or pronouns, together with all their modifiers.
The “predicate of the sentence is what?
It is the “action” part of the sentence: it contains one or more verbs and all the words that follow the verb.
What is the subject and predicates of this sentence: “Jane fainted and fell to the floor.”
Jane is the subject & there are two predicates: “fainted & fell to the floor.”
What are the subjects and the predicate in this sentence: “Jane and several other girls in the audience fainted.”
The subjects are “Jane” & “several other girls in the audience.” The predicate is “fainted.”
What does this sentence demonstrate: “Jane fainted.”
It demonstrates that it is possible for a subject and a predicate to be a single word each.
What is the subject and predicate in the following sentence: “Jane fainted halfway through the movie”?
The subject is “Jane” & “fainted halfway through the movie” is the predicate.
What is the subject and predicate in the following sentence: “The woman sitting in the back of the row also fainted.”
The subject is “The woman sitting in the back of the row” & the predicate is “also fainted.”
In sentences, 2,3,4,5 what are the phrase parts of each sentence?
In sentences, 2,3,4,5 what are the phrased. The phrases are: 2. “to the floor” 3. “in the audience 4. “halfway through the movie” 5. “sitting in the back row.”
While these phrases belong to either a subject part of a sentence or the predicate part, none of them contain what?
None of them contain a subject or a predicate (although they each include a noun).
What are the pure prepositional phrases?
- “to the floor.”
- “In the audience”
What are the shorter prepositional phrases?
- “through the movie”
- “in the back row”
Prepositional phrases are phrases that function as what?
These are phrases that function as adverbs or adjectives in a sentence.
In #2 what is modifying what? “fell to the floor”
“to the floor” modifies “fell,” and so it is an adverb.
In #3 what is modifying what? “girls in the audience”
“in the audience” modifies “girls,” and so it is an adjective.
In #4 what is modifying what? “halfway through the movie”
“through the movie” functions as an adverb because it modifies an adverb “halfway” (the completed phrase is also an adverb that modifies the verb “fainted.”
In #5 what is modifying what & how come this phrase is actually trickier? The woman “sitting in the back of the row…”
“sitting” is a participle, and it is used here as an adjective to modify “woman.” The trickier part is “in the back row” because it is an adverb that modifies the adjective “sitting.” This is a combined phrase that’s an adjective which modified “woman.”
What is a participle phrase?
These are phrases that begins with a participle which functions as an adjective.
“sitting in the back of the row…” is considered to be what kind of phrase?
It is considered to be a participle phrase.
Punctuating phrases can occur where?
Punctuating phrases can occur anywhere in a sentence.
If a phrase is fewer than four words does it still need punctuation?
If a phrase is fewer than four words it does not need punctuation.
What are the two instances in which a punctuating phrase is needed?
A punctuating phrase is generally needed if phrases are longer than four words, or if phrases of any length interrupt the main sentence.
The part in quotations is an example of what: “When in doubt” you should err on the side of caution.
It is a phrase that consists of less than four words, and therefore it is not a punctuating phrase.