Phrases
Essential Question
How can a group of words work together to provide more information in a sentence?
Grammar in the World
What Do I Know?
What have you already learned about words that provide more information in sentences?
Select the words in the following sentences that are phrases.
Building Blocks
Grammar is a complex system and structure of language. Mizzou Academy Grammar Lab spotlights one skill (or block) at a time, but it’s often helpful to see how a skill works together with other, related blocks to build the language structure as a whole. You may find the following resource topics helpful as context for this lesson:
Learn About Phrases
A phrase is a group of words that works together to give more information about a clause or sentence. Phrases do not contain a subject and verb, so they can’t stand on their own as a complete thought. Often, phrases provide extra information or context. They also make sentences more interesting. Here are some examples of phrases:
- to the park
- with careful thought
- is reading a book
- taking a bubble bath
As you can see in the above examples, phrases may have nouns or verbs, but they do not have both a subject and a predicate. You will learn more about different types of phrases in later lessons. For now, you can just focus on being able to identify them in sentences, but here are the types of phrases you will learn about in future lessons:
Prepositional phrase
Definition
Prepositional phrase: a group of words consisting of a preposition, a noun or pronoun object of the preposition, and any words that modify the object.
Examples
The horse jumped over the fence.
The chicken laid an egg in the coop.
We dashed through the rain under our umbrellas.
Participial phrase
Definition
Participial phrase: a participle plus the word or group of words that complement and modify it.
Examples
Thrilled and excited, Mikayla accepted her award with a huge smile on her face.
When I walked into the kitchen, I found my dog eating the lasagna I had prepared for dinner.
The musician, tuning her cello, looked nervous for the performance.
Gerund phrase
Definition
Gerund phrase: the gerund plus its object and modifiers.
Examples
Traveling to the beach is my favorite way to spend a vacation.
My brother likes visiting the mountains on vacation.
The best vacations are the ones we spend enjoying both the ocean and the mountains.
Infinitive phrase
Definition
Infinitive phrase: the infinitive (to + verb) and its accompanying complements and modifiers.
Examples
To play violin at Carnegie Hall was Ella’s lifelong dream.
Are you going to visit your parents over the holidays?
We were relieved to return home after a long day of work.
Do I Get It?
What have you learned about phrases? Use this interactive quiz to check your understanding.
Directions: Carefully read each of the sentences below, and then identify which part of the sentence is the phrase.