A phrase is a group of words which is not centred on a verb:

the man with a big head, extraordinarily dull, the day before yesterday, without a clue, of course, a second away from death, too stupid to breathe

But what kind of phrases are they?

A noun phrase is a phrase which can replace a noun in a sentence, likewise for an adjective phrase, adverb phrase, or verb phrase:

There was trouble in Timperley last night when naughty Simon arrived.

could become

There was always going to be a whole lot of trouble in that vile little village when the awfully naughty twelve year old tearaway turned up after too many cans of coke.

Noun: Timperley can be replaced with the noun phrase that vile little village

Verb: was can be replaced with the verb phrase was always going to be

Noun: trouble can be replaced with the noun phrase a whole lot of trouble

Noun: Simon can be replaced with the noun phrase the awfully naughty twelve year old tearaway

Adjective: naughty can be replaced with the adjective phrase awfully naughty

Verb: arrived can be replaced with the verb phrase turned up

noun phrases, verb phrases & adjective phrases work just like words in a sentence, acting as the building blocks of which sentences are made they just contain more than one word. Expanding words into phrases is one alternative always open to an author; alternately phrases can be contracted into words. Choose two each of noun phrases, verb phrases & adjective phrases in the following article and replace them with single words; also choose two each of nouns, verbs & adjectives and expand them into phrases (be prepared to comment on the effect):

Ground Zero mosque? The reality is less provocative

Charlie Brooker, The Guardian, Monday 23 August 2010

Things seem awfully heated in America right now; so heated you could probably toast a marshmallow by jabbing it on a stick and holding it toward the Atlantic. Millions are hopping mad over the news that a bunch of triumphalist Muslim extremists are about to build a victory mosque slap bang in the middle of Ground Zero.

The planned ultra-mosque will be a staggering 5,600ft tall more than five times higher than the tallest building on Earth and will be capped with an immense dome of highly-polished solid gold, carefully positioned to bounce sunlight directly toward the pavement, where it will blind pedestrians and fry small dogs. The main structure will be delimited by 600 minarets, each shaped like an upraised middle finger, and housing a powerful amplifier: when synchronised, their combined sonic might will be capable of relaying the muezzins call to prayer at such deafening volume, it will be clearly audible in the Afghan mountains, where thousands of terrorists are poised to celebrate by running around with scarves over their faces, firing AK-47s into the sky and yelling whatever the foreign word for victory is.

Im exaggerating. But Im only exaggerating a tad more than some of the professional exaggerators who initially raised objections to the Ground Zero mosque. They keep calling it the Ground Zero mosque, incidentally, because its a catchy title that paints a powerful image specifically, the image of a mosque at Ground Zero.

When I heard about it in passing, in a soundbite I figured it was a US example of the sort of inanely confrontational fantasy scheme Anjem Choudary might issue a press release about if he fancied winding up the tabloids for the 900th time this year. I was wrong. The Ground Zero

mosque is a genuine proposal, but its slightly less provocative than its critics nickname makes it sound. For one thing, its not at Ground Zero. Also, it isnt a mosque.

Wait, it gets duller. Its not being built by extremists either. Cordoba House, as its known, is a proposed Islamic cultural centre, which, in addition to a prayer room, will include a basketball court, restaurant, and swimming pool. Its aim is to improve inter-faith relations. Itll probably also have comfy chairs and people who smile at you when you walk in, the monsters.

To get to the Cordoba Centre from Ground Zero, youd have to walk in the opposite direction for two blocks, before turning a corner and walking a bit more. The journey should take roughly two minutes, or possibly slightly longer if youre heading an angry mob who cant hear your directions over the sound of their own enraged bellowing.

Perhaps spatial reality functions differently on the other side of the Atlantic, but here in London, something that is two minutes walk and round a corner from something else isnt actually in the same place at all. I once had a poo in a pub about two minutes walk from Buckingham Palace. I was not subsequently arrested and charged with crapping directly onto the Queens pillow. Thats how distance works in Britain. Its also how distance works in America, of course, but some people are currently pretending it doesnt, for daft political ends.

New York being a densely populated city, there are lots of other buildings and businesses within two blocks of Ground Zero, including a McDonalds and a Burger King, neither of which has yet been accused of serving milkshakes and fries on hallowed ground. Regardless, for the opponents of Cordoba House, two blocks is too close, period. Frustratingly, they havent produced a map pinpointing precisely how close is OK.

Thats literally all Id ask them in an interview. Id stand there pointing at a map of the city. Would it be offensive here? What about here? Or how about way over there? And when they finally picked a suitable spot, Id ask them to draw it on the map, sketching out roughly how big it should be, and how many windows its allowed to have. Then Id hand them a colour swatch and ask them to decide on a colour for the lobby carpet. And the conversation would continue in this vein until everyone in the room was in tears. Myself included.

That hasnt happened. Instead, 70% of Americans are opposed to the Ground Zero mosque, doubtless in many cases because theyve been led to believe it literally is a mosque at Ground Zero. And if not . . . well, it must be something significant. Otherwise why would all these pundits be so angry about it? And why would anyone in the media listen to them with a straight face?

According to a recent poll, one in five Americans believes Barack Obama is a Muslim, even though he isnt. A quarter of those who believe hes a Muslim also claimed he talks about his faith too much. Americans arent dumb. Clearly these particular Americans have either gone insane or been seriously misled. Where are they getting their information?

Sixty per cent said they learned it from the media. Which means its time for the media to give up.

Seriously, broadcasters, journalists: just give up now. Because either youre making things worse, or no ones paying attention anyway. May as well knock back a few Jagermeisters, unplug the autocue, and just sit there dumbly repeating whichever reality-warping meme the far right wants to go viral this week. Whats that? Obama is Gargamel and hes killing all the Smurfs? Sod it. Whatever. Roll titles.

but what of the final phrase: after too many cans of coke tagged on which replaces nothing?

There was trouble in Timperley last night when naughty Simon arrived.

There was always going to be a whole lot of trouble in that vile little village when the awfully naughty twelve year old tearaway turned up after too many cans of coke.

this is an adverb phrase (also called an adverbial, or a prepositional phrase because they often start with little words called prepositions, such as after, in, out, etc.). it could replace an adverb, such as yesterday or later.

Adverbs / adverbials answer questions in a sentence such as:

when?

today, last night, on the day before yesterday

where?

over there, behind the bike shed, in London

how?

quickly, slowly, with a little bit of luck

Adverbs / adverbials add information to a sentence which isnt grammatically essential:

I killed the old woman (with a rusty hammer) (behind the opera house) (with a little bit of luck) because I wanted to rob her golden tiara (real bad).

Adverbs often end with ly, but often do not, e.g. often.

Adverbials often begin with a preposition: after my dinner, but dont have to, e.g. the day after tomorrow.

the writers flexible friend

but most of all, adverbials are a writers flexible friend, allowing her to add in little bits of information at any point of the sentence outside of the dictates of that sentences grammar (i.e. the kind of sentence demanded by its verbs).

the common prepositions:

aboard

about

above

across

after

against

along

amid

among

around

as

at

before

behind

below

beneath

beside

besides

between

beyond

but

by

despite

down

during

except

for

from

in

inside

into

like

near

of

off

on

onto

opposite

outside

over

past

round

since

than

through

to

toward

towards

under

underneath

unlike

until

up

upon

via

with

within

without

Adverbials, being the authors flexible friend are consequently always worth commenting on in any text, as they give a lot away about the texts purpose (P), how it intends to manipulate the target audiences reactions (A) in its context (C) of production.

it can be seen how this works for any given P, A, C

e.g. A newspaper report in a left-leaning broadsheet taking the shallow and selfish life of a celebrity to task.

simply devise a dozen prepositional phrases using the list of all the common prepositions above which will help you meet your purpose and use them to create a text.

Once the text is created, omit these prepositional phrases to judge their impact; then it can be clearly seen how these optional phrases can so clearly signal an authors intentions.