Dependent Clauses
Ah yes, the most weird and confusing of the joining words! If you too are confused about these annoying things, join me as I learn about them as well!
Dependent Clauses are called dependent because they require additional information to be grammatically correct. They connect two sentence fragments and turn them into one, correct sentences. Unfortunately, they have their own subcategories. Let’s go through them together!
Dependent Clauses - Covering all the bases simply, dependent clauses are joining words. They include words like because, after, before, soon, and many more. Remember: if you place a dependent clause at the start of a sentence, it requires a comma at the end of the first simple sentence you are combining. If it’s in the middle, it does not. Here are two examples of it done in both ways (The dependent clause and attached sentence fragment are in bold):
Because it was raining so hard, they decided to stay inside.
She closed the door after everyone had come in.
Adjective Clauses - Like regular adjectives, adjective clauses are used after the noun to modify it’s meaning. There are three parts to this type of clause: A relative pronoun (whom, which, that) or a relative adverb (where, when, why), a subject and verb, and it must tell us something about the noun. Let’s look at an example to break down:
The cake, which he did not like, was decorated with blue frosting.
The phrase in bold is the adjective clause. Which is the relative adverb, he is the subject, and did not like is the verb. This sentence covers all the bases, so it’s grammatically correct! Notice that I’ve put commas around the adjective clause. Some people may say that it doesn’t need one, but others may say it does. Personally, I like the way this sentences is read aloud with the commas. As far as I know, it’s a personal preference.
Adverbial Clauses - Just like regular adverbs, adverbial clauses indicate time, place, manner, etc. Adverbs cover more than just this, but there are so many that I’m going to keep it down to the most commonly used types of adverbs. Anyway, an adverbial clause needs three things: an adverb (when, until, anywhere, like, as, etc.), a subject, and a verb. Here are some examples with the adverbial clause in bold:
When the clock strikes, everyone should be in bed.
He treats it like it’s a joke.
In the first example, when is the adverb, the clock is the subject, and strikes is the verb. You may be wonder why everyone isn’t the subject, and that is because it’s not part of the adverbial clause.
In the second example, like is the adverb, it’s is the subject, and joke is the verb. That one’s a little more tricky, but it does meet the criteria for an adverbial clause.
Noun Clauses - Noun clauses are a little different from the other ones. They add extra information about the noun not included in the clause. However, just like the others, it still requires a subject and verb. Because there are so many different kinds of nouns, you can really go far with this one! Here are some examples:
I know that the legend is not true.
I know who owns that.
These ones are a little trickier! In the first one, the legend is the subject and is is the verb. For the second one, who is the subject and owns is the verb. A little tricky, but if you’re a native English speaker, these should come easily!
There we go! Hopefully you found this helpful, because I definitely did! Safe to say I won’t be excited about noun clauses, though. Thanks for reading, and happy writing!
-RB
