He promised me a gift. He did the people much
wrong. He lives at the top of the hill. Owe no
man anything. Give every man thy ear, but few
thy voice. I spoke to her. I spoke of him.
CHAPTER III
THE KINDS OF PHEASES AND CLAUSES



PHRASES AOOOBDING TO FORM

We have seen that a phrase is a group of words
having neither subject nor predicate and that a
clause is a group of words having subject and
predicate, and yet being but a part of a sentence.
These phrases and clauses have various forms and
various uses, and if these forms and uses are un-
derstood clearly, we may give more effectiveness
and variety to our way of talking and writing.
Sometimies a phrase may consist of several verbs,
as ^*has been done,'' and ** shall be declared,'' and
such a phrase is known as a Verb Phrase. Now
and then a word not a verb may be thrust into
this verb phrase, as ** shall not be spoken'*; but
this should not be confusing, for the verb phrase
is still ^* shall be spoken." Care should of course
be taken not to confuse a verb phrase with an
attribute complement. The verb phrase, remem-
ber, is made up entirely of verbs; but the
attribute complement must contain a noun or a

38



KINDS OP PHRASES AND CLAUSES 39

pronoun or an adjective. Thus, in the sentence,
**His ankle is sprained,'* the word ** sprained '*
is simply an adjective telling an attribute of the
ankle and is therefore an attribute complement;
but in the sentence, ^*His ankle was sprained in
the race,'' the words **was sprained'' are both
verbs and therefore form a verb phrase.
