Grammar_03_85-108.qxd:JSB
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phrases Only in grammar can you be more than perfect. WILLIAM SAFIRE (1929– ) AMERICAN JOURNALIST
These indispensable and adaptable groups of words add information and detail, and bring cohesiveness to ideas within a sentence. In this lesson, you will learn how phrases help bring structure to your writing.
A PHRASE IS a string of two or more words that can express a thought or function as a single part of speech, like an adjective or an adverb, in a sentence. They do not contain both a subject and a predicate, so they cannot function as a sentence. For example: Phrases without a Predicate: that car
Shannon’s umbrella
their pool
Phrases without a Subject: almost hit a tree
broke into pieces
is heated year round