TIL

TIL English Grammar

01. Parts of Speech

c01Pts-Speech.htm

A compilation by U Kyaw Tun and staff of TIL (Tun Institute of Learning, http://www.tuninst.net ). Not for sale.

In the United States, periods and commas go inside quotation marks regardless of logic.
In the United Kingdom, Canada, and islands under the influence of British education, punctuation around quotation marks is more apt to follow logic. In American style, then, you would write: My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "Design." But in England you would write: My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "Design".

A clause is a collection of grammatically-related words including a predicate and a subject (though sometimes is the subject is implied). A collection of grammatically-related words without a subject or without a predicate is called a phrase.

Clauses are the building blocks of sentences: every sentence consists of one or more clauses. This chapter will help you to recognise and (more importantly) to use different types of clauses in your own writing.

Contents of this page

0801. Recognising Clauses
0802. Independent and Dependent Clauses
0803. Clauses as Nouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs
0803.1. Noun Clause
0803.2. Adjective Clause
0803.2. Adverb Clause
0851. Review: Identifying Clauses
0852. Review: Noun, Adjective, and Adverb Clauses

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0801. Recognising Clauses

Consider these examples:

clause: cows eat grass

This example is a clause, because it contains the subject "cows" and the predicate "eat grass."

phrase: cows eating grass

What about "cows eating grass"? This noun phrase could be a subject, but it has no predicate attached to it: the adjective phrase "eating grass" show which cows the writer is referring to, but there is nothing here to show why the writer is mentioning cows in the first place.

clause: cows eating grass are visible from the highway

This is a complete clause again. The subject "cows eating grass" and the predicate "are visible from the highway" make up a complete thought.

clause: Run!

This single-word command is also a clause, even though it does seem to have a subject. With a direct command, it is not necessary to include the subject, since it is obviously the person or people you are talking to: in other words, the clause really reads "[You] run!". You should not usually use direct commands in your essays, except in quotations.

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0802. Independent and Dependent Clauses

From the way in which a clause can stand alone as a sentence or not, it can be classified either as:
1. an independent clause, or
2. a dependant clause also known as a subordinate clause.

If a clause can stand alone as a sentence, it is an independent clause, as in the following example:

Independent clause: the Prime Minister is in Ottawa

Add the conjunction "because" at the beginning, and the clause can no longer stand by itself:

Dependent clause: because the Prime Minister is in Ottawa

When clauses cannot stand alone as sentences they are called dependent clauses or subordinate clauses. Because the clause has been made subordinate by the conjunction, the conjunction is known as a subordinating conjunction.

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0803. Clauses as Nouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs

Consider the same independent clause:

Independent clause: the Prime Minister is in Ottawa

with the subordinating conjunction "when" added to the beginning:

Dependent clause: when the Prime Minister is in Ottawa

In this case, the clause could not be a sentence by itself, since the conjunction "when" suggests that the clause is providing an explanation for something else. Since this dependent clause provides the explanation, it functions just like an adverb and it is called a dependent adverb clause or simply an adverb clause. (Remember adverb clauses are always dependent clauses). Note how the clause can replace the adverb "tomorrow in the following examples:

adverb: The committee will meet tomorrow.
adverb clause: The committee will meet when the Prime Minister is in Ottawa.

Dependent clauses can stand not only for adverbs, but also for nouns and for adjectives.

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0803.1. Noun Clause

A noun clause is an entire clause which takes the place of a noun in another clause or phrase. Like a noun, a noun clause acts as the subject or object of a verb or the object of a preposition, answering the questions "who(m)?" or "what?". Consider the following examples:

noun: I know Latin.
noun clause: I know that Latin is no longer spoken as a native language.

In the first example, the noun "Latin" acts as the direct object of the verb "know". In the second example, the entire clause "that Latin ..." is the direct object.

In fact, many noun clauses are indirect questions:

noun: Their destination is unknown.
noun clause: Where they are going is unknown.

The question "Where are they going?", with a slight change in word order, becomes a noun clause when used as part of a larger unit -- like the noun "destination", the clause is the subject of the verb "is".

Here are some more examples of noun clauses:

about what you bought at the mall

This noun clause is the object of the preposition "about", and answers the question "about what?"

Whoever broke the vase will have to pay for it.

This noun clause is the subject of the verb "will have to pay", and answers the question "who will have to pay?"

The Toronto fans hope that the Blue Jays will win again.

This noun clause is the object of the verb "hope", and answers the question "what do the fans hope?"

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0803.2. Adjective Clause

An adjective clause is a dependent clause which takes the place of an adjective in another clause or phrase. Like an adjective, an adjective clause modifies a noun or pronoun, answering questions like "which?" or "what kind of?" Consider the following examples:

Adjective: the red coat
Adjective clause: the coat which I bought yesterday

Like the word "red" in the first example, the dependent clause "which I bought yesterday" in the second example modifies the noun "coat". Note that an adjective clause usually comes after what it modifies, while an adjective usually comes before.

In formal writing, an adjective clause begins with the relative pronouns "who(m)", "that", or "which". In informal writing or speech, you may leave out the relative pronoun when it is not the subject of the adjective clause, but you should usually include the relative pronoun in formal, academic writing:

informal: The books people read were mainly religious.
formal: The books that people read were mainly religious.

informal: Some firefighters never meet the people they save.
formal: Some firefighters never meet the people whom they save.

Here are some more examples of adjective clauses:

the meat which they ate was tainted

This clause modifies the noun "meat" and answers the question "which meat?".
Editor's note: When food (such as meat) is deliberately added with something else (such as inferior or cheaper kind of meat), we say "the food has been adulterated". There was a case in Canada (in year 2001) where a butcher was mixing "old" ground beef with "fresh" and selling as "fresh". Such a case is "meat that was adulterated". However, if the meat has become unwholesome due to a natural process (such as being left for a long time in the freezer, or left outside in ordinary temperature), we say "meat that was tainted".