What is Phrases with Example

A phrase is a group of words that works together in a sentence but does not contain a subject or a verb. Often phrases are used for descriptions of people, things, or events. Examples: Filled with joy, the girl jumped up and down. The man with the red jacket is my father.

I believe you meant to ask about the term “phrases.” A phrase is a group of words that forms a meaningful unit within a sentence. It does not contain a subject and a predicate like a complete sentence does. Phrases often function as parts of speech within a sentence, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or prepositions.

Here are a few examples of different types of phrases:

Noun Phrase: “The big blue house” – In this phrase, “the big blue” describes the noun “house.”

Verb Phrase: “She is singing” – The phrase “is singing” consists of the helping verb “is” and the main verb “singing.”

Adjective Phrase: “Extremely beautiful” – The phrase “extremely beautiful” describes the noun it modifies.

Adverb Phrase: “Very slowly” – The phrase “very slowly” describes the manner in which an action is performed.

Prepositional Phrase: “In the park” – The phrase “in the park” indicates the location of an action.

Phrases are essential for adding detail, providing information, and enhancing the meaning of sentences.

In English grammar, a phrase is a group of two or more words functioning as a meaningful unit within a sentence or clause. A phrase is commonly characterized as a grammatical unit at a level between a word and a clause.

A phrase is made up of a head (or headword)—which determines the grammatical nature of the unit—and one or more optional modifiers. Phrases may contain other phrases inside them.

Common types of phrases include noun phrases (such as a good friend), verb phrases (drives carefully), adjective phrases (very cold and dark), adverb phrases (quite slowly), and prepositional phrases (in first place).

Pronunciation: FRAZE
Etymology: From the Greek, “explain, tell”
Adjective: phrasal.

Examples and Observations
“Sentences can be divided into groups of words that belong together. For instance, in the nice unicorn ate a delicious meal, the, nice, and unicorn form one such group, and a, delicious, and meal form another. (We all know this intuitively.) The group of words is called a phrase.
“If the most important part of the phrase, i.e. the head, is an adjective, the phrase is an Adjective Phrase; if the most important part of the phrase is a noun, the phrase is a Noun Phrase, and so on.” — Elly van Gelderen

Types of Phrases With Examples
Noun Phrase
“Buy a big bright green pleasure machine!” — Paul Simon, “The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine,” 1966
Verb Phrase
“Your father may be going away for a little while.” — Ellen Griswold in the movie “Vacation,” 1983
Adjective Phrase
“It is always the best policy to speak the truth—unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.” — Jerome K. Jerome, “The Idler,” February 1892
Adverb Phrase
“Movements born in hatred very quickly take on the characteristics of the thing they oppose.” — J. S. Habgood, “The Observer,” May 4, 1986
Prepositional Phrase
“I could dance with you till the cows come home. On second thought, I’d rather dance with the cows till you come home.” —Groucho Marx in “Duck Soup,” 1933
“Prepositional phrases differ from the other four types of phrase in that a preposition cannot stand alone as the head word of a phrase. Although a preposition is still the head word in a prepositional phrase, it has to be accompanied by another element—or prepositional complement—if the phrase is to be complete. Most typically, the prepositional complement will be a noun phrase.” — Kim Ballard
An Expanded Definition of Phrase
A prototypical phrase is a group of words forming a unit and consisting of a head or “nucleus” together with other words or word groups clustering around it. If the head of the phrase is a noun, we speak of a noun phrase (NP) (e.g. all those beautiful houses built in the sixties). If the head is a verb, the phrase is a verb phrase (VP). In the following sentence, the VP is in italics and the verb head is in bold: