Types of Phrases Types of Phrases

A phrase is: A group of related words that is used as a single part of speech. A phrase is a group of words that does not have both a subject and a predicate, so it is never a complete sentence.

types of phrases Prepositional phrases Appositive phrases Participle

Prepositional Phrases Contain a preposition (those small words of location—in, on, under, over, beside, etc.) Have a preposition and a noun, and sometimes a word in between. On the roadBeside the ducks Over the river from Grandma To the gymin my backpack

How to remember prepositional phrases: Think about anywhere a cat can go. Over the chairUnder my car tire Around the circleOf my friend (Oops! Not foolproof) Through the yard

Second kind of phrase: APPOSITIVE This type of phrase gives information which helps us be POSITIVE that we know what is being discussed.

Appositive Phrases In each of the examples, the underlined part is the appositive. “Larry, the plumber, fixed the sink. An excellent dancer, Rebecca took years of lessons. Miss Piggy, Kermit’s girlfriend, won first prize, a pot-bellied pig.

NEXT PHRASE TYPE: Participle A participle is a word ending in - ing or in -ed that helps describe something. Participles function as adjectives because they describe or explain.

Three examples of participles. We watched an exhausting Powerpoint. The receiver made a diving catch. The man admired the painted barn.

Wait! Shouldn’t “diving” be a verb? It sounds like action! It depends on the sentence. Here, “diving” describes the catch, so it’s an adjective. It might be a bobbled catch or a leaping catch, but it is a diving one.

Participial phrases Participles can also be in phrases. Look for “ing” or “ed”. The people standing in line grew irritated. Which people? The ones standing in line. Determined to make the team, Jo shot baskets every night. For what reason did Jo shoot? Because she’s determined to make the team.

present participle phrase Present participle phrases will start with a word ending in -ing Ex: The horse trotting up to the fence hopes that you have an apple or carrot. Trotting up to the fence modifies the noun horse.

Don't mistake a present participle phrase for a gerund phrase. GerundGerund and present participle phrases are easy to confuse because they both begin with an ing word. The difference is the function that they provide in the sentence. A gerund phrase will always behave as a noun while a present participle phrase will act as an adjective. Check out these examples: Walking on the beach, Delores dodged jellyfish that had washed ashore. Walking on the beach = present participle phrase describing the noun Delores. Walking on the beach is painful if jellyfish have washed ashore. Walking on the beach = gerund phrase, the subject of the verb is.subject verb

Past participle phrase Past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, -n, or -ne as in the words asked, eaten, saved, dealt, seen, and gone. (usually ed) Examples: The church, destroyed by a fire, was never rebuilt. Tom nervously watched the woman, alarmed by her silence.

REVIEW: A phrase is a group of words that functions as a single part of speech. A phrase doesn’t have both a subject and a verb, so it is never a complete sentence.

The three types of phrases are: Prepositional Appositive Participle (Adjective)

Important: While it is not necessary, for the most part, to know the difference between all the types of phrases, it is important to know what phrases are because many punctuation rules are based on being able to identify phrases and clauses.

Quiz Do prepositional phrases need commas? Do appositive phrases need commas? Do participle phrases need commas? List a preposition. What part of speech is a participle phrase? Give an example of a participle phrase. Give an example of an appositive phrase. Give an example of a prepositional phrase. Define phrase. An appositive replaces what part of speech?