Phrases and Clauses Hub

Author: Indigo Curnick

Date: 2026-08-29

Introduction

This blog is intended to do two things. First, it will elucidate the difference between English clauses and phrases; and give a very general overview of the types. Second, it will be a hub for links to all of the different phrase and clause blogs I write. On publication of this blog, I don't have too many of those blogs complete, but as I complete them, I will add links here.

Clauses

A clause contains a subject and a verb. More specifically, a clause contains a noun phrase as the subject and a verb phrase as the verb.

There are two categories of clauses: independent and dependent.

Independent clauses can stand alone as complete sentences. Consider:

• Mary drinks milk.

This is both a clause, and a sentence. It is a clause because it contains a subject (Mary) and a verb (drinks). However, it also forms a complete thought, and so is a complete sentence.

Dependent clauses can not stand alone as complete sentences. There are three kinds of dependent clauses:

1. Relative Clause
2. Adverbial Clause
3. Noun Clause

Let's look briefly at each of the three kinds of dependent clauses.

A relative clause is a clause functioning as an adjective, sometimes called an adjective clause for this reason. We could have:

• Mary drinks milk that her cows produce.

that her cows produce is a clause because it contains a subject (her cows) and a verb (produce). We can see it is a relative clause because it is introduced by a relative pronoun (see my blog on pronouns here for more details on relative pronouns).

An adverbial clause functions as an adverb. We could have:

• Mark drinks milk when her cows are in season.

when her cows are in season is a clause because it contains a subject (her cows) and a verb (are).

Finally a noun clause functions as a noun. We can have:

• Mary drinks what her cows produce.

what her cows produce is a clause because it contains a subject (her cows) and a verb (produce).

Something which can give a bit of trouble is differentiating between the three kinds of clauses. The clauses are differentiated by function and not by form, so it is important to look at how they act in a sentence.

Noun clauses act as nouns. They can be subject, an object, a subject complement or the object of a preposition. One test to identify a noun clause is to replace the clause with words like something or it, and see if the sentence still makes sense.

• Mary drinks what her cows produce.

• Mary drinks it.

• What you said surprised me.

• Something surprised me.

Relative clauses modify a noun, just like an adjective. They are introduced by a relative pronoun, and usually immediately follow that noun. We can test for a relative clause by asking ourselves which noun the clause is modifying.

• Mary drinks milk that her cows produce.

• What noun do the cows produce? Milk.

• The person who called left a message.

• What noun called? The person.

Adverbial clauses modify the action or the whole situation. They express time, reasons, conditions, purposes, results and so on. We can test for these by seeing if the clause answers a question like when? where? how? why? under what circumstances?.

• Mark drinks milk when her cows are in season.

• When does Mary drink milk? When her cows are in season.

• We stayed home because it rained.

• Why did you stay home? Because it rained.

Some tricky points. that serves double duty - it can introduce a noun clause and a relative clause:

• I think that he's right. (noun clause)
• The book that I bought is expensive. (relative clause)

It's crucial to pay attention to the function of the clause since that is used differently in these two examples.

Another tricky set is where, when and why. They also introduce multiple clause types. For example, with when:

• The place where I grew up is old. (relative clause)
• Stay where you are. (adverbial clause)
• I know where she lives. (noun clause)

Phrases

Unlike a clause, a phrase does not have a subject and a verb. As such, phrases can never be independent - they can only be embedded into sentences. They may have a subject or a verb alone, though.

There are many kinds of phrases:

• Noun Phrase
• Verb Phrase
• Adjective Phrase
• Adverbial Phrases
• Prepositional Phrase
• Gerund Phrase
• Infinitive Phrase
• Participle Phrase
• Appositive Phrase

Noun phrases have a noun as the main word, for example:

• I read old books on Latin.

Verb phrases have a verb as the main word, for example:

• The dog being walked is very shy.

Adjective phrases have an adjective as a main word and modify a noun for example:

• He had bright blue eyes.

Adverbial phrases have an adverb as the main word and modify a very, for example:

• She sleeps like a baby.

Prepositional phrases have a preposition, its object, and any words modifying that object, for example:

• I live on the way.

A gerund phrase contains a gerund, its object and any modifiers. A gerund is a verb in the -ing form, for example:

• Waiting for the train is always boring.

An infinitive phrase contains an infinitive verb (e.g. to run, to dance), plus any complements or modifiers, for example:

• He helped to paint the fence.

A participle phrase is a special kind of adjective phrase with a participle as the main word, for example:

• Look at the bird building the nest.

An appositive phrase is a special kind of noun phrase which modifies another noun phrase, to describe it or rename it another way, for example:

• The Tate Modern, a famous museum, is in London.

Understanding the Difference

We can understand the difference between a clause and a phrase with some examples. Consider the following two sets of examples (clauses in bold, phrases in italics):

• Anna sings when she wakes up
• Anna sings in the morning

when she wakes up is a clause because it contains a subject (she) and a verb (wakes). in the morning does not contain a subject or a verb.

• The ravens lived where the factories are.
• The ravens lived in the area of factories.

where the factories are is a clause because it contains a subject (the factories) and a verb (are). in the area of factories does not contain a subject or a verb, so it is a phrase.

Nesting

It is possible to embed clauses into phrases or phrases into clauses to build remarkably complex structures. For readability, it is best to not do too much embedding as sentences can become unwieldy! Consider though:

• Mary drinks what her cows have been producing.

what her cows have been producing is a clause which contains a subject (her cows), but it also contains not just a simple verb but a verb phrase: have been producing.

Conclusion

I like to think about clauses and phrases a bit like functions and data structures in software engineering. We can continually compose more complex sentences from the basic building blocks. Now you've seen a list of all the main kinds of clauses:

1. Relative Clause
2. Adverbial Clause
3. Noun Clause

And the main kinds of phrases:

• Noun Phrase
• Verb Phrase
• Adjective Phrase
• Adverbial Phrases
• Prepositional Phrase
• Gerund Phrase
• Infinitive Phrase
• Participle Phrase
• Appositive Phrase

Be sure to check back regularly as I continue to update the links!

References

Murray, L. (1859 (1795)) English Grammar Adapted to the Different Classes of Learners. With an Appendix, Containing Rules and Observations, for Assisting the More Advanced Students to Write with Perspicuity and Accuracy. John Murphy & Co.

Greenbaum, S., Nelson, G. (2002) An Introduction to English Grammar. Pearson Education Limited

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartik, J. (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman.

Collins Editors, (2017). Cobuild English Grammar. Harper Collins Publishers.