Phrases - Prime-Time Players

Different Types of Phrases Prepositional Begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun Adjectival Prepositional phrase that functions as an adjective Adverbial Prepositional

Chapter

Phrases: Prime-Time Players

In This Chapter

• Probe prepositional phrases

• Admire appositives

• Visit verbals

In this chapter, we start the construction of your writing with the phrase, one of the key building blocks of the sentence There are several different kinds of phrases, including prepositional phrases (with the subcategories adjectival phrases and adverbial phrases), appositives, and verbals In this chapter, you learn them all First, I teach you the individual parts of each different phrase and then ease you into the phrases themselves

Phrases of the Moon

A phrase is a group of words that functions in a sentence as a single part of

speech A phrase does not have a subject or a verb As you write, you use phrases to

• Add detail by describing

• Make your meaning more precise

• Fold in additional information

1 M ) P a r t 3 : Usage and Abusage

You Could Look It Up

A phrase is a group of words, without a subject or a verb, that functions in a

sentence as a single part of speech A phrase cannot stand alone as an independent unit A phrase can function only as a part of speech

The following table shows the different types of phrases

Different Types of Phrases

Prepositional Begins with a preposition and

ends with a noun or pronoun Adjectival Prepositional phrase that

functions as an adjective Adverbial Prepositional phrase that

functions as an adverb

Appositive Noun or pronoun that renames

another noun or pronoun

Verbal A verb form used as another

part of speech

Participle Verbal phrase that functions

as an adjective

Gerund Verbal phrase that functions

as a noun Infinitive Verbal phrase that functions

as a noun, adjective, or adverb

by the lake She has a fish with red gills

We cheered with loud voices Lou, a Viking, enjoys plunder

(See the following three entries.)

Eating slowly, the child was

finally quiet

Partying hearty requires

great endurance

To sleep late on Sunday is a

real treat

Prepositional Phrases: The Big Daddy of Phrases

A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with

a noun or a pronoun This noun or pronoun is called the "object of the preposition." Here are some sample prepositional phrases:

• By the ocean

• Near the window

Chapter I I : Phrases: Prime-Time Players I M

• Over the cabinet

• With us

• In your ear

• Under your hat

You can connect two or more prepositional

phrases with a coordinating conjunction

The seven coordinating conjunctions are

for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so For example:

• The resort is beside the mountain and

by the lake

The coordinating conjunction is and

• You can usually find Macho Marvin in

the steam room, on the exercise bike, or

under the barbells

The coordinating conjunction is or

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A prepositional phrase

is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with

a noun or a pronoun

$

r Quoth the Maven _

i V r To find out if a prepositional phrase is functioning as an ad-jectival phrase, see if it answers these questions: "Which one?" or

"What kind?"

Offspring 1: Adjectival Phrases

When a prepositional phrase serves as an adjective, it's called an adjectival phrase

(That was a no-brainer, eh? Who says you don't get a break in this English biz?)

An adjectival phrase, as with an adjective, describes a noun or a pronoun Here are some examples:

• The manager with the pink slips terrorized the employees

The adjectival phrase "with the pink slips" describes the noun "manager."

• The price of the promotion was much too steep

The adjectival phrase "of the promotion" describes the noun "price."

• Something in the corner of the desk was

moving

The adjectival phrase "in the corner"

describes the noun "something"; the

adjectival phrase "of the desk" describes

the noun "corner."

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T S S E R ^ An adverbial phrase is

a prepositional phrase that modi-fies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb

1 4 2 P a r t 3 : Usage and Abusage

Offspring 2: Adverbial Phrases

Like Meryl Streep or Kevin Kline, the prepositional phrase is a versatile creature, able

to slip into different roles Depending on how it is used in a sentence, a prepositional

phrase can function as an adverbial phrase by modifying a verb, an adjective, or an

adverb For example:

• She lost her head at the retro love-in

The adverbial phrase "at the retro love-in" describes the verb "lost."

• The salesperson skimmed over the product's real cost

The adverbial phrase "over the product's real cost" modifies the verb "skimmed."

• The boss was thrilled at their attitude

^ y Quoth the Maven

To find out if a prepositional

phrase is functioning as an

adverbial phrase, see if it

answers one of these questions:

"Where?" "When?" "In what

manner?" "To what extent?"

The adverbial phrase "at their attitude" modi-fies the adjective "thrilled."

• The rock climbers arrived late at night

The adverbial phrase "at night" modifies the adverb "late."

Appositives: Something More for Your Money

An appositive is a noun or a pronoun that renames another noun or pronoun Appositives

are placed directly after the noun or pronoun they identify For example:

• Bob's car, a wreck, died a grisly death by the side of the interstate

The appositive "a wreck" renames the noun, "car."

• Spot, a cat, should understand my moods

The appositive "a cat" renames the noun, "Spot."

• She, my sister, is always late

The appositive "my sister" renames the pronoun "she."

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An appositive is a noun

or pronoun that renames another

noun or pronoun

Some appositives are essential to the meaning of the sentence; others are not Be sure to use commas care-fully to establish meaning with essential and nones-sential appositives Otherwise your sentences will not make sense, as these examples show:

Chapter I I : Phrases: Prime-Time Players \ki

Confusing: Do you know my friend Bill?

Is Bill the friend or is the speaker talking to Bill?

Clear: Do you know my friend, Bill?

Appositive Phrases

Appositive phrases are nouns or pronouns with modifiers Appositive phrases provide

additional information and description to the sentence As with solitary appositives,

appositive phrases are placed near the noun or pronoun they describe For example:

• Columbia University, the second-largest

landowner in New York City {after the

Catholic Church), is part of the Ivy

League

• David Prowse, the guy in the Darth Vader

suit in the Star Wars movies, did not find

out that his lines were going to be

dubbed over by James Earl Jones until

he saw the screening of the movie

Appositives are great stylistic devices because they allow you to eliminate unnecessary words and put more information in one sentence They can also help you

• Create more graceful sentences

• Eliminate repetition

• Create a beat or rhythm in your writing

• Make your writing more interesting

Here's an example:

Two sentences: Phineas T Barnum was a great American showman Barnum was near

death in 1891 when a New York newspaper asked if he'd like to have his obituary

published while he could still read it

One sentence: Phineas T Barnum, a great American showman, was near death in 1891

when a New York newspaper asked if he'd like to have his obituary published while he could still read it

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Appositive phrases are

nouns or pronouns with modifiers

In grammar lingo, nonessential appositives are called "nonrestric-tive."

More on this and other stylistic devices in Part 5

I M t Part 3 : Usage and Abusaqe

appositives with commas

The Moment of Truth

As with appositives, appositive phrases come in two varieties: essential and tial Don't set off essential appositives with commas, but be sure to set off nonessen-tial appositives with commas

Essential appositive: The famous British mystery writer

Danger, Will Robinson ASa t h a Christie disappeared in 1924 and was missing

Don't set off essential

Nonessential appositive: Agatha Christie, the famous British mystery writer, disappeared in 1924 and was

missing for 10 days

One of the most common writing errors concerns misuse of commas with appositives and appositive phrases Writers sometimes set off essential appositives with commas, but neglect those poor nonessential ones You would never do that, would you? To make sure you're not guilty of that comma abuse, let's take a minute to practice, shall we? Add commas as needed to each of the following sentences

1 Isadora Duncan a great American dancer of the early twentieth century has become almost as famous for her death as her dancing

2 John Styth Pemberton an Atlanta pharmacist created the original Coca-Cola

in 1886

3 Richard Nixon is the only American president who was forced to resign his office

4 King Louis XIV of France a ballet dancer from the time he was a teenager established the Royal Ballet Company

5 Robert Benchley the American humorist and critic was a member of the

Algonquin table of noted wits

6 Nellie Melba a famous Australian soprano of the late nineteenth and early twen-tieth century gave her name to a snack food called "melba toast."

7 The centaur a mythological creature is said to feast on raw flesh and prodigious amounts of liquor

8 Alexander the Great died of a fever

9 Ferrets a domesticated variety of polecats were first tamed in 1500 B.C.E by the Egyptians

10 Some people consider the number 13 unlucky

Chapter I I : Phrases: Prime-Time Players U S

Answers

1 Isadora Duncan, a great American dancer of the early twentieth century, has

become almost as famous for her death as her dancing

2 John Styth Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist, created the original Coca-Cola in

U

3 No punctuation change needed

4 King Louis XIV of France, a ballet dancer from the time he was a teenager,

established the Royal Ballet Company

5 Robert Benchley, the American humorist and critic, was a member of the

Algonquin table of noted wits

6 Nellie Melba, a famous Australian soprano of the late nineteenth and early

twentieth century, gave her name to a snack food called "melba toast."

7 The centaur, a mythological

crea-ture, is said to feast on raw flesh and

prodigious amounts of liquor

8 No punctuation change needed

9 Ferrets, a domesticated variety

of polecats, were first tamed in

1500 B.C.E by the Egyptians

10 No punctuation change needed

Take My Word for It

Appositives, as with other parts

of a sentence, can be com-pound To create a compound appositive, connect the apposi-tives with a correlative

conjunc-tion: and, but, or, for, so, nor, and yet

Verbal Phrases: Talk Soup

A verbal is a verb form used as another part of speech Like Gaul, verbals come in

three varieties: participles, gerunds, and infinitives Each type has a different function in

a sentence:

• Participles function as adjectives

• Gerunds function as nouns

• Infinitives function as nouns, adjectives,

or adverbs

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A verbal is a verb form

used as another part of speech

I M > P a r t 3 : Usage and Abusaqe

Although a verbal doesn't function as a verb in a sentence, it does retain two qualities

of a verb:

• A verbal can be described by adverbs and adverbial phrases

• A verbal can add modifiers to become a verbal phrase

Let's get to know the three verbals a little better

Part and Participle

A participle is a form of a verb that functions as an adjective There are two kinds of participles: present participles and past participles

• Present participles end in -ing (jumping, burning,

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-• Past participles usually end in -ed, -t, or -en (jumped, burnt, spoken)

A participle is a form

of a verb that functions as an

adjective

In the mood to add some participle action to your sentences? Here's how you do it:

• The howling children disturbed the neighbors

The present participle "howling" describes the noun "children."

• Fred Flintstone gave Barney Rubble a crumbling rock

The present participle "crumbling" describes the noun "rock."

• The frozen candy bar broke her $900 bridgework

The past participle "frozen" describes the noun "candy bar."

• Annoyed, Rita ate dinner by herself in the bathroom

The past participle "annoyed" describes the noun "Rita."

Don't confuse participles and verbs Participles aren't preceded by a helping verb, as these examples show:

• The sputtering car jerked down the road, (participle)

• The car was sputtering down the road, (verb)

Chapter I I : Phrases: Prime-Time Players H 7

Participle phrases contain a participle modified by an adverb or an adverbial phrase The whole kit and caboodle acts as an adjective, as these examples show:

• Swimming slowly, I didn't notice the shark on my tail

The participle phrase "swimming slowly" describes the pronoun "I."

• Annoyed by its heavy breathing, I told it to get lost

The participle phrase "Annoyed by its heavy breathing" describes the pronoun "I." However, the participle phrase can also be placed after the word it describes In that case, it is usually set off by commas, as in this example:

• "My sister, burning the toast, looked distracted."

Like appositives, participles and participle phrases are an indispensable part of the

writer's bag of tricks because they allow you to create concise and interesting

tences Use them to combine information from two or more sentences into one sen-tence Notice how much more punch the following sentence has when it is combined

by using a participle:

Two sentences: Noel Coward made a slight but pointed adjustment to an old cliché He

once described another writer as every other inch a gentleman

One sentence: Making a slight but pointed adjustment to the old cliché, Noel Coward

once described another writer as every other inch a gentleman

Gerund Phrases

A gerund is a form of a verb used as a noun Remember the following two guidelines

when you hunt for gerunds:

• Gerunds always end in -ing

• Gerunds always act as nouns

Gerunds can function as subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, objects of a preposi-tion, predicate nominatives, and appositives Here are some examples of gerunds:

• Leroy expanded his skills by studying ^^0^%

The gerund "studying" is the object of fifTj 6 ^ ° u Could Look It Up

the preposition "by." ^ « 4 3 ? A g e r u n d is Q v e r b f o r m

• At the age of 10, Irving started running use< ^ QS a n o u n

-The gerund "running" is a direct object

I M I Part 3 : Usage and Abusaqe

• My mother's sole occupation, kvetching, makes her tedious company

The gerund "kvetching" (an especially virulent form of complaining) is an

appositive in this sentence

Like a participle, a gerund can be part of a phrase In that case, the whole package is

called a gerund phrase (Got you with that one, didn't I?) Here are some gerund

phrases busy at work in their sentences:

• The quiet, steady rowing soothed him

The gerund phrase is "the quiet, steady rowing."

Danger, Will Robinson

Don't confuse gerunds

and present participles, because

both end in -ing A gerund

func-tions only as a noun, while a

participle functions only as an

modifier

• My evening routine features jogging slowly around the block

The gerund phrase is "jogging slowly around the block."

• Thousands of "Dead Heads" show their

dedica-tion to their departed leader by following what s left of The Grateful Dead around the country

The gerund phrase is "following what's left of The Grateful Dead around the country."

Infinitive Phrases: The Final Frontier

Last but not least we have the infinitive, a form of the verb that comes after the word

to and acts as a noun, adjective, or adverb Versatile little babies, infinitives can fill as

many roles as gerunds, with the addition of adjectives and adverbs Here are some examples:

• To succeed takes courage, foresight, and luck

The infinitive is "to succeed," and it functions as the subject

• Alone in her cubicle, all she wanted was to survive

The infinitive is "to survive," and it functions as the direct object

• Afraid to move, she froze in terror

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The infinitive is a verb

form that comes after the word to

and functions as a noun,

adjec-tive, or adverb The infinitive is "to move," and it modifies the

adverb "afraid."