Using Phrases in Templates 
Phrases are generally straightforward to use in templates. Simple phrases (without any variable portions) can be referenced like regular $variables; complex phrases are referenced similarly to template conditionals.

When referencing a phrase in a template, there are two things you have to know.
  1. The phrase name (phrase_name) – this is what uniquely identifies a phrase and how phrases are referenced. Generally, the phrase name reflects the phrase text directly; for example, the phrase with variable name poll_timeout has the text of Poll Timeout.
  2. The phrase group – if the phrase is in a group, you will only be able to access it on pages that load that group. For example, the Polls group is only loaded in poll.php, so if you try to reference poll_timeout in a template that’s loaded on another page, you won’t get any output.
To use a phrase in a template, you need to use the following constructs -

phrase
{vb:phrase phrase_name[, arguments for phrase...]}
Inserts the specified phrase. If arguments are provided, they will be run through htmlspecialchars.
Example:
{vb:phrase welcome}

rawphrase
{vb:rawphrase phrase_name[, arguments for phrase...]}
As above, though arguments bypass htmlspecialchars.
Example:
{vb:rawphrase message_by_x_on_y_at_z, {vb:link member, {vb:raw postinfo}}, {vb:raw postinfo.username}, {vb:raw postinfo.postdate}, {vb:raw postinfo.posttime}}

For more information on the template syntax please see: Template Syntax
Martin 14th Sep 2011, 12:59am
This is the old syntax, used in 3.x.

For 4.x the phrases are created in a following way:

{vb:rawphrase showing_threads_x_to_y_of_z, {vb:raw limitlower}, {vb:raw limitupper}, {vb:raw totalthreads}}