Question

What is the difference between phrases and clauses

Answer 1

What is the phrase and clause in this sentence?

"Before the mechanical reaper was invented, farmers used a scythe to cut grain"

Show me ALL one word adjectives. Shoe me all phrases used as adjectives. Show each adverb clause. (Do not consider separately prepositional phrases that are part of infinitive phrases or adverb clauses)

Answer 2

A phrase is a sentence fragment that may contain verbs and objects, but no nouns functioning as the subject. E.g., "dashing through the snow"

A clause is a part of a --or whole--sentence that has a subject and a predicate (verb). Clauses don't have to be complete sentences, but often are. E.g., "dashing through the snow, the child was late for school", but also "when the saints go marching in"

In your example sentence, the phrase would most likely be "Before the mechanical reaper". You have two clauses, one independent and one not. They are, respectively, "farmers used a scythe to cut grain" and "Before the mechanical reaper was invented". The second (dependent) clause also happens to be your adverb clause.

One-word adjectives: mechanical. No phrases used as adjectives that I see.

Answer 3

Phrase is small group of words in a sentence or a clause. It is a single part of speech and not containing both a subject and a verb.
for examples: http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/phrase [1]

Whereas a clause is a part of a sentence that has its own subject and verb.
In the sentence,“When it rained they went inside” consists of two clauses: “when it rained” and “they went inside.