Page 78 - Grammar Glow - 7

14 14 Phrases

Warm-up

Read the given sentences, and write the phrase names of the underlined phrases.
1. My father is a man of few words. ________________ ________________

2. The queen wore a crown made of gold. ________________ ________________

3. The news given by you is quite alarming. ________________ ________________
4. In winter, we wear clothes made of wool. ________________ ________________

5. We flew over a hill covered with snow. ________________ ________________

Phrase

A phrase is a group of words that add meaning to a sentence. It is not a complete idea. A phrase
forms an essential part of the syntax or structure of a sentence although it does not have any stand
alone value. It helps in expressing a single idea and is used as a unit within a sentence. It does not
contain a finite verb.

l Jack and Jill went up the hill. l Japan is called the land of rising sun.

Here, up the hill and the land of rising sun are phrases. They mean something, but do not make
complete sense as they do not contain a finite verb.
In this chapter, we will learn noun, adjective, adverb, verb and prepositional phrases.

Noun Phrase

A noun phrase includes a noun and its modifiers. It is a group of words that does the work of a
noun. It answers the question who or what.
For example:
common noun

The goat ate leaves The black goat ate all the tender leaves.
l l
article verb modifier modifier

In the above sentences, the addition of modifiers transform the status of nouns in the sentences. The
words goat and leaves in the first sentence are common nouns which get changed into the black goat
and all the tender leaves after the addition of the modifiers. As these are made out of nouns, these

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