Friday 28 February 2014

Phrases, Clauses and Sentences

You know you're in teacher training when... you spend Friday evenings trying to decide whether 'Sometimes it's hard to be a woman' is a Phrase, a Clause or a Sentence. The differences between them are minimal but vitally important when teaching a seven-year-old how to write.
     Other terms with similar qualities include: Subjects, Verbs and Objects (these help to define sentences (and clauses, but not phrases)); 'subordinating conjunctions', which are used in forming complex sentences, as opposed to 'coordinating conjunctions', which are found in compound sentences (but neither will appear in a phrase or a clause (as far as I'm aware)).
     Then there are the 'Active' and 'Passive' voices, which change depending on whether the subject is doing the verb, or the verb is being done to the subject, for example: 'A man was arrested' is in the passive voice, because the man has been arrested, he did not do the arresting, although trying to arrest a police officer must be challenge worth taking up at some point.
     For now though [Phrase], or after I've finished [Clause], I'll have something to eat [Sentence].

Sometimes it's hard to be Trainee Teacher. Have a happy weekend!

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