So let's get into what is a phrase. And remember where we came from on this, which is basic literacy, basic building blocks the foundation of what you're going to need to do to speak and write, well, well, you need, these are the things you need to know whether we like it or not. So a phrase is one of these early early building blocks, like we saw in the hierarchy lesson. In the previous screencast. What you see is a phrase is one of these things where you start to once you become a more complex thinker, a more complex speaker, a more complex writer, you're going to be using phrases just because your sentences are going to be longer. The way you speak, the way you write.
Things will be more complex. There is going to be more stuff in what you write, and what you say. And this is one of those places where you'll be able to see How you can put your thoughts down either in the written word or the spoken word. And you'll be able to say them well, in terms of real life and in history, so to speak, I talk about history a lot, because I like it. But I also recognize patterns. There seems to be a movement around where if people want things just summarized, or they want a slogan, or they want some kind of short, easy, digestible chunk.
And you see this stuff in social media, you even see it in the newspaper, where there are people who hears something really quickly. And they make all kinds of assumptions about it. And they go about with along with their lives, and sometimes that could be a mistake. Think about how people don't understand complicated things in the world and they use their opinions of those things and they'll make bad choices. A very quick economic decision. Here in the United States, if from about 2000, let's say 2001 2002 to about mid 2007.
The phrase the catchphrase the saying the easy thing was real estate makes you money. And that was it, buy a house, or maybe more than one, forget about Don't worry about the debt, the value of the house will always go up. And you're gonna make money possibly get rich. And that's about the level that people went and did these things. And what happened was if you listened to complicated speakers, a guy named Peter Schiff was a guy saying that this is a bad thing that this is going to end badly and you should not you should stop and a couple of other people in the Austrian School of economics@mises.org but they're even the only one right you had a writer named Michael Lewis wrote about this. You You know you had but but none of these things that we're saying, Hey, wait a minute, I see what you know, people think, oh, housing can't go down how to buy a house, you can't lose, buy real estate get rich, you had TV shows like flip this house meaning buy it fixed up a little bit and flip it.
Okay, boom, that's it. That's all they were talking about. Very simple, very short, no complex at all. That's the kind of thing that's going to get you in trouble. That's the kind of thing that you're going to take the loss and you don't want to if you're able to think and then read, and then also speak and listen, and write in a complicated way. This is the kind of stuff that helps you out.
Alright, that's my speech. I'm Doug merola. And I approve of this message. So what is the phrase you have the definition there some of this outreach to you. Much of it you'll see on your own and get more out of it when you're looking at it through your own eyes and you'll get it in the materials part. right because all of this stuff is yours.
A phrase is a group of words that stand together as a single unit typically as part of a clause or a sentence. And then here's the key. A phrase does not contain a subject and verb and consequently cannot convey a complete thought. And that's the key. I'm always talking to you about a sentence complaints, a complete thought. And that is totally true.
A phrase cannot convey a complete thought, one of the three building blocks of a sentence, subject, verb, complete thought the phrase does not have a complete thought. So it's just a bunch of words in logical order that serve a purpose. That's it. It's a nice easy way to become a more complex speaker and a more complex writer, a clause does contain and that's the difference right? It says a phrase contrasts with a clause because a clause does have a subject and a verb and it could convey a complete idea. Whereas a phrase cannot.
And that's really one of the things that is key examples of phrases we'll do this is gonna be a little bit shorter this video, but you'll see Here I'll explain these to you. There's a well known quote by Shirley Temple. And so it gives you a bunch of different phrases. This one here. The quote is I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked me for my autograph. Now, Shirley Temple was a world famous American television and movie star.
She was monstrously famous when she was little she was a little girl Shirley Temple there's even a drink called a Shirley Temple for kids. I think it's seven up in granite Dean or something like that. non alcoholic because she was little she was a girl. And so she you know, it's a neat quote, because Santa Claus asks for her autograph. And Santa of course would not be worried about little girls. autographs, Santa makes little people happy.
Santa doesn't ask for autographs. So the phrase here is um, the excellent Action below it acts like a noun. It's the direct object of the verb stopped. What does that mean? fancy wording they're stopped doing what? stopped believing in Santa Claus.
And that's your phrase, right? believing in Santa Claus is just it's just a bunch of words in order. There's no subject there's no verb. There's no complete thought. Believing in Santa Claus is just a blank phrase. In this case, as they tell you it's a noun, because the phrase and that you want to get even more fancy Jared Do you see how it says Jared phrase here?
A Jared is an IMG word that it looks like a verb, but isn't a verb. I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to Sema department and he asked for my autograph. This IMG word makes it a Geron phrase Darren think is just fancy terminology for what is basic language but believing in Santa Claus is your friend. We'll move a little faster. I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him at a department store. And he asked for my autograph this phrase, my mother is a noun.
It's the subject of the adverbial clause. And now we know what a clause is when my mother took me to see him in a department store. So you have the subject of that clause. My mother is the subject of that. But it's just a short phrase there. And it can't be on its own.
My autograph is the same kind of thing. This one here, this phrase x like and now it's the object of the preposition for a preposition right there for, for what for my autograph. And it is acting like a noun. It is a thing remember nouns person, place thing or an idea. What is the thing being talked about there after the preposition for my autograph, and the last one in a department store. So I stopped believing in Santa Claus my mother took me to see him in a department store, comma, and he asked for my autograph.
This phrase acts like an adverb. So the activity that's what we're talking about here where the activity took place, it is an adverb of place. So I stopped believing in Santa Claus my mother took me to see him in a department store took me were in a department store, it's adding more information to where her mother took her. But these are just phrases in a department store, my mother believing in Santa Claus. So you're going to be able to take sentences and a be able to see how they're built. And you will soon right after this is over, be be able to see how to do this stuff on your own.
And you'll do exercises and be able to write clearly simply because you can see See how things are built. If you know how houses built, you can build one model airplane, you can build one. If you know the basics of playing basketball, you can do it. It's the same kind of thing here with writing and speaking. And phrases are a way for to get you to be a little bit more competent and complex and really advance your ability to use the English language in a way that gets you what you want. See for the fifth and final lesson, where we talk about types of phrases in effect participial phrases