Clauses

Traditional Definition A clause is a group of words that contains a verb and

its subject.

There are two types of clauses

Main aka. Independent

Subordinate aka. dependent

Independent Clauses

A main clause expresses a complete thought and can stand by itself

Examples:

I hate Mondays.

Fish are smelly.

Stop!

More on independent clauses. An independent clause can always be punctuated as a

free standing sentence.

All sentences must contain at least one independent clause.

An independent clause consists of the basic sentence (subject-verb-complement) and any modifiers.

Identify the independent clauses. Can you read this?

This is an independent clause.

What you said.

Edward is my only true love.

Which he had bitten.

Subordinate or Dependent Clauses A subordinate clause does not express a complete

thought and cannot stand alone.

Examples:

Before the party is over

When he called

If I were you

More on subordinate clauses A subordinate clause must always be attached to an

independent clause in order to make a complete sentence; it can never stand alone as a complete sentence.

If a S.O. clause is punctuated with a period or semicolon it is considered to be a fragment.

Subordinate clauses can be used in one of three ways:

Adjectives

Adverbs

Nouns

Adjective clause An adjective clause is a subordinate clause used as an

adjective to modify a noun or pronoun

Jacob who is a werewolf is in love with me.

Estella married a man whom she did not love.

The radio, which I had left on, woke me up.

Adjective clause begin with a relative pronoun:

Who, whom, whose, which, and that

They are called relative pronouns because they relate to the noun that the adjective clause modifies.

When a relative pronoun replaces the repeated noun in the adjective clause the relative pronoun inherits whatever function the noun had in the underlying sentence—subject,

object, possessive noun, or object of a preposition.

Conversion is a two step process. 1. Replace the repeated or duplicate noun (along with

its modifiers) in the underlying sentence with the appropriate relative pronoun.

2. Move the relative pronoun to the first position in the underlying sentence if it is not already in the first position.

Examples They identified the person (the accident injured the person).

1. Replace the duplicate noun and noun modifiers with the appropriate relative pronoun.

They identified the person (the accident injured whom)

2. Move the relative pronoun to the first position in the clause.

They identified the person whom the accident injured.

The man ( the man’s children go to college) had just taken a second job.

1. Replace the duplicate noun and noun modifiers with the appropriate relative pronoun.

The man whose children go to college had just taken a job.

I met a man (the man knows four languages).

who

I met a man (the man’s wife knows four languages).

whose

Combine these sentences They welcomed the visitors (they had long anticipated

the visitor’s arrival)

The treaty (Congress had been debating the treaty’s fate for months ) was finally approved in a voice vote.

Remember to use a relative pronoun

Who, whose, whom, which, that

They welcomed the visitors whose arrival they had long anticipated.

The treaty whose fate Congress had been debating for months was finally approved in a voice vote

Adverb Clause An adverb clause is a subordinate clause that modifies

a verb, an adjective, or another adverb

All adverb clauses are made up of two components

1. A subordinating conjunction.

2. An underlying sentence

Subordinating Conjunctions After

Because

Where

If

That

Than

Unlike the adjective clause the word that introduces the clause (the subordinating conjunction) plays no role inside the subordinate clause.

Examples

We are glad that you won

I ate a whole pizza because I was hungry.

Give me a call if I can help you.

Noun Clause A noun clause is a subordinate clause used as a noun.

Noun clauses are not modifiers whereas adjective and adverb clauses modify words in other clauses. Noun clauses play the role of nouns.

Look for that, if, whether or not

Noun clauses are always singular even if when the nouns within the clause are plural. . .

That they usually win all their games pleases the audience.

Noun clauses can readily be identified by the it test.

What we know about art is a mystery.

They know who we are.

I will sell them for whatever I can get for them.