phrases & clauses: confused?

Dear all,

This week we've talked about Phrases & Clauses.

Well, I was a bit scared because of all the confusing faces in class when I talked about them.

It was as if everyone's jaws were almost dropping.

Hmmm....

Actually, they aren't something very hard. It's a bit confusing at first. But once you get the concept right, everything will fall into place. Trust me.

And by the way, I won't be going in depth for these topics because you aren't exactly gonna use it unless you are really interested in it or you wanna become a teacher in future.

So, this is just something extra to be added in your knowledge.

Therefore, be relaxed.

The past semester's students were extremely experts in these 2 topics.

I think it'll be good to go through the exercise and from there, you can actually see how the pattern goes.

So before, signing off, I shall make a quick revision for these 2 topics, at least to get them stuck in your head for this weekend :)

PHRASES:

- group of words without subject / without predicate / without both

- 3 types :

• appositive phrase: to give extra information / description about an object

e.g: Jenny, my English Foundation teacher, is a kind-hearted person. (:P)

• prepositional phrase: a phrase which contains a preposition in its beginning

e.g: I saw Jenny walking along the beach.

• verbal phrases: gerund phrase, participial phrase, infinitive phrase

• gerund phrase: a phrase which contains a gerund in its beginning

e.g: Travelling around the world has always been Jenny's dream.

(note that travelling around the world is used as the subject of the sentence)

• participial phrase: a phrase which contains a participle in its beginning

e.g: Travelling around the world, the dream which Jenny always fascinates about.

(note that travelling around the world refers directly to 'the dream'. there's always an

object right in front or after the participle)

• infinitive phrase: a phrase which contains infinitive in its beginning (to + verb)

e.g: To travel around the world has always been Jenny's dream.

• verb phrase: usually contain words like "may be", "have been", "shall be", "must be" ....

Dear babies, my head also going burst with this, I hope this short revision will help to have a clearer idea of what phrases are. I'll continue the clauses tomorrow in another entry.

Take care :)

Have a good night :)

-jen-