Chapter 6 PHRASES, CLAUSES, AND SENTENCES（第六章短语、从句和句子）.pdfVIP

6393-9 Ch06.F 4/24/01 9:31 AM Page 55 Chapter 6 PHRASES, CLAUSES, AND SENTENCES Chapter Check-In ❑ Recognizing phrases ❑ Identifying independent and subordinate clauses ❑ Understanding sentences lauses and phrases are the building blocks of sentences. A phrase is a Cgroup of words that act as a part of speech but cannot stand alone as a sentence. Clauses are groups of words that have a subject and a predi- cate. Independent clauses express a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence but subordinate clauses depend on other parts of the sen- tence to express a complete thought. A sentence expresses a complete thought and contains a subject, a noun or pronoun, and a predicate, a verb or verb phrase. The four basic types of sentences—simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex— use phrases and clauses in varying degrees of complexity. The Phrase A phrase is any group of related words that, unlike a sentence, has no subject-predicate combination. The words in a phrase act together so that the phrase itself functions as a single part of speech. For example, some phrases act as nouns, some as verbs, some as adjectives or adverbs. Remem- ber that phrases can’t stand alone as sentences. The chance that you’ll ever be asked to differentiate between a gerund phrase and an infinitive phrase or a participial phrase and a prepositional phrase is small. So why learn about these phrases? First, if you understand how they work, you can avoid mistaking them for sentences. Second, you can avoid misplacing them or leaving them dangling in sentences (See 6393-9 Ch06.F