Chapter 4. Phrases, Clauses and Sentences
Phrase: a group of words working as one unit without a subject–verb pair (in the garden, the tall girl).
Clause: a group of words with a subject and a verb. An independent (main) clause can stand alone; a dependent (subordinate) clause cannot [3][4].
Sentence structure
| Type | Structure | Example |
| Simple | One independent clause | The sun rose. |
| Compound | Two or more independent clauses | The sun rose, and the birds sang. |
| Complex | One independent plus one or more dependent clauses | When the sun rose, the birds sang. |
| Compound-complex | Two or more independent plus at least one dependent | When the sun rose, the birds sang, and we woke up. |
Sentence purpose: declarative (statement), interrogative (question), imperative (command) and exclamatory (exclamation).
Subjects, predicates, objects. The subject is who or what the sentence is about; the predicate says something about the subject. A direct object receives the action (She read the book); an indirect object tells to or for whom (She gave him the book). A complement completes the meaning of a linking verb (She is a doctor) [4].
Clause types. Noun clauses (I know that he left), adjective (relative) clauses (the book that I read), and adverbial clauses (because it rained).
Sentence fragments, run-ons and comma splices. A fragment lacks a complete clause (Because it was late.). A run-on joins independent clauses without punctuation or a conjunction. A comma splice joins them with only a comma. Fix by using a full stop, a semicolon, or a comma with a coordinating conjunction [9][11].
Review: Correct the comma splice: “It was raining, we stayed inside.” (Answer: “It was raining, so we stayed inside.” or “It was raining; we stayed inside.”)