identifying phrases by eguriase s. m. okaka

Identifying Phrases

By Eguriase S. M. Okaka Remember that a phrase is a group of words without a finite verb that forms part of a sentence. A finite verb is a verb that shows agreement with its subject in terms of person and numbers, e.g., the verb go as in: • He goes • They go Phrases can be used to form sentences by adding other words to them. One of the words to be added could be a verb. Examples • Dancing in the hall • A bottle of water • Our English teacher • Eating lunch You can see that none of the above examples of phrase contains a finite verb. But you can add other words to them to form sentences. Examples • The children are dancing in the hall. • My daddy asked for a bottle of water. • Our English teacher is a woman. • The students are eating lunch. Reminder: A sentence is group of words that makes complete sense. A sentence may have one or more finite verbs in it. A phrase is a group of words that does not make complete sense. Exercises Work with a partner to identify the phrases in the passage below. Mrs. Ola and her twins One early morning, Mrs. Ola, a caring mother in her thirties, called her two children. They were identical twins in their final year in junior school. She advised them to work very hard so as to get good results in their junior school certificate examination. The twins in their teens, handsome and tall for their age, were very hard working but sometimes they spent a lot of time playing, especially when she was not in the house. She promised to buy them a computer game if they excelled in all their subjects in the examination. Complete the following sentences with suitable phrases listed below: a) Our mathematics teachers b) In the store c) Over the fence d) By a vehicle e) In the staffroom Let us attempt the following exercise with above phrases: • Our teacher is ------------------------------. • The old woman knocked down ------------------------------. • We have enough food -------------------------. • ---------------------------- is making our homework. • The thief jumped ----------------------------------. Below are sentences as well as phrases. Write ‘S’ beside the sentences and ‘Phr’ beside the ones that are phrases. • at the river • Alice is a girl • a good teacher • Stand up! • Have you seen her? • along the road • Going to the market • in the morning • I am here • with my sister Types of Phrases We will study the different types of phrases in this write-up. They are noun phrase, Adjectival phrase, Adverbial phrase, Verb phrase Prepositional phrase. Noun phrase Remember that a noun is defined as the name of a person, animal, place or thing and idea. A noun phrase is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as the main word or head. The main word in a noun phrase can be modified by possessives, articles or adjectives. Examples • Our English teacher (possessive (adjective) (noun) Modifier) • My office (possessive modifier) (noun) • Their books (possessive modifier) (noun) • The big house (determiner) (adjective) (noun) • A fat man (determiner) (adjective) (noun) • A student (determiner) (noun) • Beautiful ladies (adjective) (noun) • Handsome boys (adjective) (noun) The group of words in a noun phrase is used as a noun. A noun phrase performs the same function as a noun. Like a noun, phrase can function as: a) The subject of a verb The little girl is my daughter. b) the object of the verb The man killed a snake. c) The complement of the subject. He is the head boy. The noun phrase can also function as complement of a preposition, object complement and as a noun in apposition. Exercises 1 Underline the noun phrases in the following sentences. • She went to the market. • Festus is a boy. • She came here a week ago. • I will see you at the bus stop. • She is walking along the road, Exercise 2 Pick out the noun phrases in the above passage, ‘Mrs. Ola and her twins’. Exercise 3 Complete the following sentences with a noun phrase. • She reads -------------------. • He opened ------------------. • ---------------------- is mine. • ------------------- is English. • ------------------- is my dog. Adjectival phrases You have been taught that an adjective is a word that describes or qualifies a noun. Examples a) A tall lady b) A fat man c) A big house d) A black bird e) A wise man The underlined words (adjectives) describe the noun beside them. An adjectival phrase is a phrase that also describes or qualifies a noun. It does the same work as an adjective. Examples a) The man in the car is the driver. b) The bird on that tree is a vulture. c) The house near the bridge is mine. The underlined expressions are all examples of adjectival phrases. The adjectival phrase is the car describes the noun man, the adjectival phrase on that tree describes the noun bird and the adjectival phrase near the bridge describes the noun house. An adjectival phrase should occur as close as possible to the noun it describes. See the examples above. If the phrase is removed from the sentence, the sentence will still makes sense but will needs additional information to make it clear. • The man is the driver. • The bird is a vulture. • The house is mine. Exercises 1 Work with a partner to identify the adjectival phrases in the passage ‘Mrs. Ola and her twins’. Exercise 2 Underline the adjectival phrase in the following sentences. a) The book under the table is mine. b) The woman by the swimming pool is my mother. c) The students at the assembly hall are singing. d) The man outside the church is my father. e) The man climbing the tree is a palm wine tapper. Exercise 3 Use the following adjectival phrases to form sentences. • in the garden • with a beautiful cover • near the market • on the tree Exercise 4 Identify the type of word or phrase in the underlined expressions and state the function each of them performs in the sentence. One has been done for you. 1. The man in the garden is my father. Answer: A prepositional phrase functioning as an adjective phrase qualifying the noun ‘man’. • The rich man lives in a big house. • Mr. Thompson bought a three-legged table. • He gave her a ring with a huge diamond. • I love chocolates. • The current Miss World is extremely beautiful. • The bus could not take all the school children. Adverbial phrases Remember that an adverb is a word that modifies a verb. It can also modify adjectives and other adverbs. Adverbs that modify verbs tell us the manner (how an action is done), the time (when an action is done) and the place (where an action happened). Most adverbs are formed by adding –ly. Adverbs of manner, time and place are the three basic types of adverbs. There are other types such as frequency adverbs that answer the question. How often? And purpose adverbs that answer the question. Why? Examples • He walked quickly. (adverb of manner) • The children sang beautifully. (adverb of manner) • Put the food away. (adverb of place) • He always goes to school. (adverb of frequency) • She left yesterday. (adverb of time) Some phrases do the work of adverbs. These are called adverbial phrases. Some adverbial phrases are formed with prepositions. The adverbial phrases examples 1 & 2 are formed with prepositions. Examples • The old man died at exactly twelve midnight. (adverbial phrase of time) • The students put the book on the table. (adverbial phrase of place) • She did her home work very well. (adverbial phrase of manner) • He walked rather clumsily. (adverbial phrase of manner) • He ate his food quite noisily. (adverbial phrase of manner) Exercise 1 Underline the adverb in each of the following sentences. • Pat came yesterday. • The policeman walk fast. • They will do their work tomorrow. • The soldier fought courageously. Exercise 2 Underline the adverbial phrase in each of the following sentences. • The vendor came in the morning. • The man fought with great courage. • The children go to the stream quite often. • The students put their books in the cupboard. • He bought the presents for his friends. • They came to support him. Exercise 3 Use a table to analyze the sentences in Exercise 2 above by identifying the adverbial phrase, the type of adverbial phrase and the function of the adverbial phrase. The first one has been done for you. 1. The vendor came in the morning. Adverbial phrase: in the morning Type: time Function: it modifies the verb came. • The man fought with great courage. • The children go to the stream quite often. • We learn English at 9:00 a.m. every day. • The students put their books in the cupboard. • They came to support him. Prepositional phrases A preposition is a word used in close connection with and usually before a noun or pronoun, gerund (that is the –ing form of a verb, used as a noun to show place, time, and direction). A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. Examples of prepositions are on, at, in, about, above, across, of, off, under, between, outside, inside, beside, from. More examples • The plates are on the table. • The shoes are under the bed. • The cat jumped over the fence. • The old man is in front of the house. • My father’s car is parked beside the house. The word or phrase the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition. A preposition is used with a noun or pronoun to form a phrase. A prepositional phrase therefore, is made up of a preposition followed by a noun, pronoun, or gerund. It has two basic paths a preposition plus a noun or pronoun that serves as the object of the preposition. Examples of prepositional phrases • at school (preposition) (noun) • from me (prepositional) (noun) • with Lucy (preposition) (noun) • by dancing (preposition) (noun) Examples A prepositional phrase can function as an adjective phrase or an adverbial phrase. • The girl with a beautiful face is my daughter. (The noun phrase is introduced by a preposition with = prepositional phrase; the prepositional phrase functions as an adjective phrase). • We watch the film at the National Theater. (the noun phrase is introduced by a preposition at = prepositional phrase; the prepositional phrase functions as an adverbial phrase). The prepositional phrase in the first example is called adjectival phrase because it qualifies the noun girl. The one in the second example is called an adverbial phrase because it modifies the verb watched. Exercises 1 Underline the prepositional phrases in each of the following sentences. • The class captain is talking to our teacher. • The children are studying in the library. • She is good at playing football. • My books are under my locker. • The bag is made of leather. • He told me about the lost money. Exercise 2 Underline the prepositional phrases in each of the following sentences. • The man with the broken arm is my uncle. • The students in the clinic are sick. • The boys ate the food in a hurry. • He left the house in anger. • They arrival at night . Exercise 3 Identify and underline the prepositional phrase in each of the following sentences. • I can’t do the mathematics without help. • I can do the work in just three hours. • I want to go to the stream. • The student from Benin Republic is my friend. • The woman with the golden hair is my mother. • The car parked behind the hall has been stolen. Verb phrase Remember that verbs are words used to tell us what happens. They are action words and they can also express a state of being. A verb is the most important word in English language. Examples of verbs • The boy kicked the ball. (action) • The monkey jumped over the fence. (action) • Janet is a girl. (state of being) Verbs such as kill, jump, eat, walk, run are called action verbs because they involved action. Verbs such as be (is, am, was, are, were, been, being), have/has are state of being verbs because they do not involve action. A verb is made up of a lexical or main verb and one or more auxiliary verbs/helping verbs. Examples • The teacher has come into the class. (auxiliary verb) (lexical/ (main) verb) • The student had done the work. (auxiliary verb) (lexical/(main) verb) • The student has been doing the work for a long time. (auxiliary verb) (lexical/(main) verb) • The death toll may have been increasing after the tsunami. (auxiliary verb) (lexical/(main) verb) Exercises 1 Underline the verb phrases in each of the following sentences. • Sarah may sing in the concert. • Mrs. Guria has been promoted. • The lady does not dance very well. • The big boy might have been a bully. • The man could have shot the thief. Exercise 2 Read the following passage, then, identify and copy out the verb phrases in it. Mrs. Abiba has been a seamstress for quite a long time now. She is a good seamstress who has trained many apprentices. This year, she has up to ten apprentices and may have trained more than this number the previous year. Her customers may not need the services of any other seamstress as she can sew very well. Mrs. Abiba is a pleasant lady and may not have offended any of her customers. Exercise 3 Identify the type of word or phrase in italics and the function each of them performs in the sentence. One has been done for you. Example I am going home. Answer: A verb phrase describing an action. • Her mother bought her a pair of shoes from that shop. • You may leave now. • She ate the food very quickly. • It still amazes my mum how I have changed. • It will be dark soon. • You can put your clothes in the bottom drawer. By Eguriase S. M. Okaka