What is the difference between these two nouns?

Question

"Clause" and "Phrase"Could you give me some examples for each one, please?

BillJ · Accepted Answer

The first thing is that clauses can have subjects:

For Iran to develop nuclear weapons would be terrible.

Just imagine Iran developing nuclear weapons.

Those are clearly clauses. They take all the usual clause modifiers, such as adverbs:

For Iran to eventually develop nuclear weapons in a few years would be terrible.

Just imagine Iran actually developing nuclear weapons.

They can contain auxiliary verbs:

For Iran to have been developing nuclear weapons for years would not surprise me.

Just imagine Iran having been developing nuclear weapons for years.

Perhaps most tellingly, they can be negated:

For Iran not to develop nuclear weapons would be terrible.

For Iran to not just develop nuclear weapons but test them would be terrible.

Just imagine Iran never developing nuclear weapons.

The non-finite clauses can be subjectless:

to develop nuclear weapons developing nuclear weapons

Same thing: they can contain auxiliary verbs and adverbs. And although they don't have subjects, they are understood as if they did (even if the subject may be understood to be "some arbitrary person").

Phrases do not have a subject-predicate structure, and are classified according to the word that is head of the phrase:

A very tall man [noun phrase]; very handsome [adjective phrase]; quite separately [adverb phrase] and so on.

What is the difference between these two nouns?

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions