Phrases and Clauses – What’s the Difference – English Grammar

In the upper-intermediate English Video lesson James is teaching the general rules on the phrases and clauses, the differences between them and gives some examples on the time clauses.

Check out this video. James here is talking kind of faster speed like he would talk with his native students. So this lesson is a great change to practice understanding normal conversation, and though if you might have some difficulties at first the lesson transcript we prepared would be of great help to you.

The lesson gives the definition of the phrases and clauses and describes the difference between them.

A Phrase or a phrasal verb is a 2-3 word verb. Usually a phrase is a sentence fragment with a verb OR a noun (a subject).

Some examples:

– pick (it) up

– move out

– show off

– make out

Here, in each of these phrases there is a verb (with a preposition), but there is no noun.

A clause or a clausal sentence is a sentence fragment with a verb AND a noun (a subject). It’s much more powerful, because you can use it to make whole sentences (adjective clausal sentence, adverbial clausal sentence or time clausal sentence).

 

James gives very colorful comparison of phrases and clauses. He says that the phrase is like a batman who is really cool but nothing special. While the clause is like a superman who is really super in every way possible – he is superstrong, superfast etc.

 

So talking about clauses the lesson specifically describes the so-called pairs of clauses in a sentence – when the sentence comprises at least two clauses.

1) The independent clause (or clause that can stand alone)

2) The dependent clause (or clause that needs the independent clause).

The notion of independence means the ability to stand on one’s own. Like an adult is independent compared to a child. An independent person is able to live on one’s own, when he/she doesn’t need anything or doesn’t rely on anybody’s help.

Here is the example of a sentence that contains the pair of clauses:

When I got home, I ate dinner.

In the given example the comma (“,”) shows that there are two clauses in the sentence. The clause “when I got home” is the dependent clause (a time clause) – it doesn’t really make sense without the independent clause. And the clause “I ate dinner” is the independent clause or the main clause, because it can stand on its own in a sentence.

The important rule: if the dependent clause comes first in the sentence and it follows with the independent clause (like in the above example) the clauses are separated with a comma.

If the independent clause comes first and it follows with the dependent clause – then there is no comma. (Example: I ate dinner when I got home).

And finally: the four main words that describe the time clauses (they are used both in the past and in the future tenses) are:

• when;
• after;
• before;
• while.

If you see one of these words in a sentence you would know that the following clause is a time clause.