Words and Phrases

Posted by Manjusha. Filed in English Grammar

What is a word?

A word is a group of letters arranged in a particular order. It has a meaning. Examples are: flower, bird, boy, student, beautiful, evening, nice etc.

A group of letters that does not make any sense is not a word. For example, rhts, btured, ghuyl and gklis are not words because they do not make any sense.

What is a phrase?

A phrase is a group of words that makes sense. Examples are: the boy, a beautiful girl, in the morning and on the table.

Notes

A group of words becomes a phrase only when it makes sense. So what about the word group given below? Is it a phrase?

The on table

No, it is not a phrase because it doesn’t make any sense. However, by rearranging the words we can convert it into a meaningful phrase: on the table

Exercise

Put a tick mark against the phrases in the following.

1. on the table

2. around corner the

3. evening an unforgettable

4. a wonderful experience

5. a badly cooked meal

6. dog my neighbour’s

7. sky in stars the

8. a sheet of paper

9. story an interesting

10. bird in hand a

11. thread a piece of

12. the desert ship of

13. better than anybody else

14. a blade of grass

15. bush a bird in the

16. a funny little guy

17. flowers a garland of

18. bottle the in

19. a glass of water

20. a clever dog

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