2015-10-27 Grammar: phrases and clauses

Greg Malivuk
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http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
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What wh- questions can you ask about the article?

How many times have robbers struck the bank this year?

Q: Why have police been interviewing witnesses?
A: Police have been interviewing witnesses in hopes of getting a more complete description of the thief.
(or: “Because they hope to get a more complete description of the thief.”)
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Phrases and Clauses
phrase: a group of words in a sentence that go together

noun phrase: the complete noun, including adjectives and modifiers: “the most interesting French movie”

verb phrase: the “complete” verb (including helping verbs like “will” and “have”)

A man in a ski mask has been robbing banks.
“in a ski mask” gives more information about “a man” -> adjective prepositional phrase

He robbed the bank in the middle of the night.
“in the middle of the night” gives information about “robbed” -> adverb prepositional phrase

I saw the man with my binoculars.
If I used them to see the man, this is an adverb phrase.
If I saw the man and he had my binoculars, this is an adjective phrase.
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clause: a group of words with a subject and verbs

A man robbed the bank. = Independent clause / complete sentence

before people arrived to start work = dependent clause / subordinate clause (not a complete sentence), also an adverbial clause (it tells when a verb happened)

Where he lives isn’t important. = noun clause (it means a specific place=noun)

A man robbed the bank that we visited yesterday. = adjective clause (gives more information about the bank)
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p. 32 exercise 1 - with your partner, make information questions that have these answers
1 Who is Barack Obama?
2 What did he do? Where did he go? Who went to the movies?
(Remember how to form questions, with “do” and “did” and changing the word order.)
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Homework: Which answers in exercise 1 are clauses?
	Identify the clauses in the sentences in exercise 2.