Past Participle Phrase: Perched menacingly on the porch railing, the cat watched the neighbor’s dog.
In the sentence above, the participle phrase gasping for breath describes how the dog felt after his “long” walk.
Present Participle Phrase: Gasping for breath, the dachshund barely made it home from his ten foot walk.
It is very easy to confuse gerund phrases with participle phrases because they look exactly the same! However, it’s important to remember that while participle phrases modify nouns, gerund phrases can actually replace nouns altogether! These phrases act like adjectives and always modify nouns. Participle Phrases consist of a present or past participle (a verb ending in -ing or -ed), an object, and any modifiers. In the sentence above, the prepositional phrase with long golden hair modifies the noun, princess, by describing her outward appearance.
The princess with long golden hair was trapped in a tower by a dragon.
The prepositional phrase in the sentence above is acting like an adverb by modifying the verb and answering where Bambi and Thumper frolicked. As a unit, prepositional phrases can be used to modify nouns or verbs by acting like adjectives or adverbs respectively.īambi frolicked in the meadow with Thumper. Prepositional phrases consist of a preposition, its object, and any articles or modifiers. Here are the different types of modifying or describing phrases : 1. In this sentence, even though walking is usually categorized as a verb, in this sentence, it is being used as a gerund phrase, and it is the subject of the sentence.
Walking on the beach is one of my favorite activities.
Gerund phrases include a verb ending in -ing, an object, and modifiers. Other times, words that are typically categorized as verbs become nouns when they are used in a gerund phrase. This means that if you take away the appositive phrase, the sentence will still make sense. However, “Julie” is the subject of the sentence, while “my older sister” functions as an appositive phrase to make sure that her readers know who “Julie” is.Īdditionally, when appositive phrases are separated from the rest of the sentence by a pair of commas, this means that they are non-essential to understanding the sentence. In the sentence above, both “Julie” and “my older sister” are nouns that could equally stand as the subject of the sentence.
Julie, my older sister, came to visit me the other day.
Here is another example of a much shorter appositive noun phrase : Sometimes, noun phrases can appear as appositive phrases, a phrase placed after a noun to provide additional information.
With colors and of red, purple, and orange are both prepositional phrases that modify the noun.
Glowing is a participle, or a verb acting like an adjective.
The setting sun includes an article, an adjective, and the main noun of the phrase.
The setting sun glowing with colors of red, purple, and orange fascinated us this evening.Ĭan you believe that the underlined phrase above is all one noun phrase ? Let’s take it apart:.
Don’t let length fool you into thinking these are clauses! Noun phrases can be short or long depending on how much detail the writer wishes to include about a certain person, place, thing, or idea. Noun phrases can function as any noun in the sentence, whether as subjects, objects, or subject complements. Modifiers can include adjectives, articles, participles, or possessive nouns and pronouns, just to name a few. Noun phrases consist of a noun and all of its modifiers. Phrases can be divided into three main categories: noun phrases, verb phrases, and modifying phrases.
The bright red ball that slipped from my hands bounced directly into a muddy puddle.ĭo you see how the underlined clause in the above sentence contains both a noun or pronoun, that, and a verb, slipped ? This dependent clause modifies which red ball landed in the puddle and is not considered a noun phrase.
Neither of these phrases contain a verb, so they cannot be considered clauses. Each noun phrase above consists of a noun, an article, and one or two adjectives that modify the noun. In the example above, there are two noun phrases.
The bright red ball bounced directly into a muddy puddle.
Phrases are different from clauses because while dependent and independent clauses both contain a subject and a verb, phrases do not. Phrases are a combination of two or more words that can take the role of a noun, a verb, or a modifier in a sentence.