Phrases and clauses

hello grammarians hello Rosie hello David so okay so you know the schoolhouse rock song conjunction junction right classic classic so in that song you know the the the chorus asks like conjunction junction what's your function and then this engineer played by Jack Sheldon goes hook and up words and phrases and clauses and so that's what we're going to talk about today is the difference between a phrase and a clause because both of them are groups of words right phrases and clauses are both groups of words but they each do different things so let's let's break that down so Rosie if you please what is a phrase so phrase is a group of words and it acts like a single part of speech okay but it's not it will never be a full sentence because phrases don't have both a subject and a verb alright so a phrase can never be a sentence right what are some examples of phrases my best friend so this is a group of words that ultimately behaves like a noun right okay and then there's an adjective phrase with the blue shirt so this is a prepositional phrase that as you said is behaving like an adjective right okay and then for 20 days which behaves like an adverb so this is a noun phrase an adjective phrase and an adverbial phrase so none of these things can be sentences but they all like you said act like parts of speech okay meanwhile a clause is a group of words that can be a sentence it's not always a sentence but the big difference between phrases and clauses is that clauses do have both a subject and a verb so it's not it can't be a phrase because a phrase is just one part of speech but a clause always has a noun or pronoun component and a verb component that's right okay so a clause could be a dependent clause which can't stand on its own for example the wizard who cast a spell right that can't be its own sentence but it's got a lot going on so that's not a sentence but it can also be independent right so if we said the wizard cast a spell that would that's also a clause and it's also its own sentence so let's let's test a couple of things and see if they are phrases or clauses okay the Falcon soared majestically so this is a group of words and we've got this the Falcon here that that's a noun phrase that that's behaving like a part of speech so I know that this definitely has a phrase in it right but is it just a phrase on its own I guess I would have to say no because it's got this verb sword and this adverb majestically so the Falcon soared majestically I would have to say this is a clause would I be right you would be right right that's not only a clause but it's an independent clause so it could be its own sentence with a period right so let's get a little bit of George Harrison in here while my guitar gently weeps so we've got a subject in here my guitar and a verb weeps so we know it's a clause but it begins with this word while which is I think it's a Borden ating conjunction so this would be actually a dependent clause but it is a clause so this thing could not be a sentence on its own that's right yeah we Rosie what about the best ham sandwich in Oklahoma is that a phrase or a clause that is a phrase okay why is that we don't have a verb this is a this is all a subject okay and I mean we've got the best so we've kind of got this superlative and thrown in there hmm but it's all modifying ham sandwich right it's actually all modifying sandwich because it's the best ham sandwich and then we've got this other prepositional phrase that also modifies sandwich right so that's the phrase how about under the ocean blue that is a phrase okay what makes you say that well again we don't have a verb so we've got a subject the ocean mm-hmm and we have under that's a preposition so we have kind of a direction and a subject we have a direction and a place but we don't have an action and that would make it a phrase and not a clause so phrases are groups of words that act like parts of speech so this one for example is an adjective or adverb you'll phrase we don't know because we don't know what it's modifying and this one is a noun phrase the best ham sandwich in Oklahoma it's behaving like a noun and clauses are groups of phrases that have a subject and a verb so while my guitar gently weeps there's a guitar what is it doing it's weeping so we know it's a clause we'll go into what the difference between a dependent and an independent clause is next time but just know for now this is a clause over here and this this clause over here the falcon soared majestically is also a clause by dint of the fact that it has both the subject the falcon and a verb soared majestically right cool that is phrases and clauses you can learn anything Dave it out Rosie out