We usually think of words as the basic parts of a language. We add words to form sentences. And a group of words make up a paragraph, or a text, or a conversation.

However, I would like to challenge this view and say that the real building block is the phrase and not the word.

Why so? Because we read in phrases and speak in phrases, too.

Easily said, a phrase is a group of words that is part of a sentence. Here are the most common ones highlighted.

That tall woman doesn't want to greet me. (noun phrase)

It all happened very quickly. (adverb phrase)

The mirror is at the end of the hallway. (prepositional phrase)

These groups of words that make up sentences are phrases. They form somehow a unit that cannot be broken.

If I read out loud the example sentences, I cannot really pause in the middle of the phrases. If I did, I would sound very weird and I would break the flow of the sentence and its meaning.

Try to read them out loud, pausing at the slashes I'm adding here:

That tall / woman doesn't want to greet me.
It all happened very / quickly.
The mirror is at the end of / the hallway.

These pauses here sound unnatural and even "robotic" because we are breaking the phrases apart. We never do so when reading or speaking in our native languages.

Let's try to read the sentences again, but this time pausing at different places.

That tall woman / doesn't want to greet me.
It all happened / very quickly.
The mirror / is at the end of the hallway.

I know we wouldn't normally make a long pause in these places, but this time it sounded much more natural. We didn't break the phrases. We didn't break the natural flow of meaning.

Why it matters

Think of a child that is learning to read out loud and they are stopping at the "wrong" places. They might be breaking phrases apart and that might be limiting them or the hearers to understand the text properly. And the same happens when we are speaking, even if we don't pay attention to it.

In the end, phrases matter if we want to effectively understand or be understood. This is especially important when we are learning another language. Each language has unique ways and rules to form its phrases. For example, in Spanish adjectives usually come after the noun.

that tall woman - esa mujer alta

Actionable tips

Next time your are reading in your target language and you come to a place that is hard to understand, read it again out loud and try to see that you are not breaking any phrases apart.
Read out loud more often. It helps you pause at the right places and you are practicing your pronunciation.
Try to learn vocabulary in phrases. It will make you sound more natural and you will become more fluent in your target language.

The basic building blocks of a language are not words. They are phrases!

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