Phrases and Clauses
and Sentences
Ian Birchenough - Educationalist, Chair of Governors, and retired teacher
Words
A sentence is made up of words which together
tell us some information.
First, there are wo
rds.
Words are the sm
allest parts of a Se
ntence.
little / bird / twitt
ered
Each of these words
does a different job
.
twittered is a verb
- it tells us what is
going on in a sente
bird is a noun - it
nce.
names things in a
sentence.
little is an adjectiv
e - it describes a
noun.
We can put words
together to make
a phrase.
Clauses
A clause is a larger group of words that gives more information.
A Clause has at least two phrases - one is a noun phrase and
known as the subject, and the other is the verb.
The little bird twittered.
In this clause, the noun phrase is the little bird
and the verb is twittered.
We can put clauses together to make sentences.
Phrases
t, single piece of
A phrase is a shor
n put
little bird. We ca
information: the
us
to make a cla e.
phrases together
Complex sentences
ailed ideas.
d to put across more det
A complex sentence is use
t can make sense
tains one main clause tha
A complex sentence con
linked to it.
re minor clauses that are
on its own, and one or mo
le bird twittered.
Sentences
A sentence needs a capital letter at the
beginning of the clause we've used, and a
full stop at the end, like this;
The little bird twittered.
This is a simple sentence. A simple sentence
has one clause that has a subject and a verb.
A simple sentence tells us one simple idea.
When I looked up the litt
ause it has a
little bird twittered.” bec
The main clause is “the
. The minor clause is
makes sense on its own
subject and a verb and
ject and a verb,
h it is a clause with a sub
'When I looked up'. Althoug
rmation from a
its own, it needs more info
it doesn't make sense on
or clauses to make
to we can add more min
main clause. If we want
tence.
an even more complex sen
se and still
in clause with a minor clau
We can even split the ma
have a complex sentence.
e bird that I disturbed,
When I looked up the littl
6
e I disturbed it.
le bird twittered becaus
When I looked up the litt
twittered.