previous / next

Clause:

A CLAUSE is a group of words with a subject and predicate of its own, gives complete sense, and forms a part of a larger group of words called ‘sentence’.

e.g.

The boys are singing and the girls are dancing.

In the sentence above, we have two CLAUSES: ‘The boys are singing’

and ‘the girls are dancing’.

We say that the group of words ‘the boys are singing’ is a clause because it has a subject ‘the boys’ and a predicate ‘are singing’;

we say the other group is also a clause because it has a subject ‘the girls’ and a predicate ‘are dancing’, and these two clauses are joined

together by a conjunction ‘and’ to make a larger group of words called a SENTENCE.

This kind of Clauses which are joined by conjunctions like ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘not only…but also’, ‘either…or’, ‘neither…nor’,

and the connecting words, such as however, nevertheless, furthermore, etc. are called COORDINATE CLAUSES because each is an independent on its own, and is joined to the other one just to give a continuous idea.

If we disconnect them, each of them can stand on its own and give us complete sense.  And the conjunctions joining them are called coordinating conjunctions.

e.g.

Boys play in the field and girls play in the park but teachers study in the library.

‘Boys play in the field’ – coordinate clause (1)

‘and’ – coordinate conjunction (1)

‘girls play in the park’ – coordinate clause (2)

‘but’ – coordinate conjunction (2)

‘teachers study in the library’ (3)

There can be any number of words and/ or phrases and/or clauses in a SENTENCE!

There are two broad categories of Clauses:

Main or Independent Clauses and Subordinate or Dependent Clauses:

e.g.

They started on their journey when the sun rose.

‘They started on their journey’ — main or independent clause

‘when the sun rose’ — subordinate or dependent clause

In the above example ‘They started on their journey’ is the Main Clause because

this group of words can stand on its own and give us complete sense. Without

the other group of words ‘when the sun…’, we can get the complete meaning.

The other group ‘when the sun rose’, on the other hand, is called a ‘Subordinate

or Dependent Clause’ because it cannot stand on its own, i.e. it cannot give us

complete sense.  We do not know what happened “when the sun rose” without

the other group, the main clause; it is dependent on the other group of words to

give us complete sense.

The conjunctions that are used to join a subordinate clause to a main clause are

called ‘subordinate conjunctions’, and the most common of them are: because,

since, as, if, when, so that, as…as, etc.

The coordinating conjunctions are not included in the subordinate conjunctions.

Compare:

He went to the market but (he) did not buy any fruit.

‘He went to the market’ — coordinate clause

‘but’ – coordinate conjunctions

‘(he) did not buy any fruit’ – coordinate clause

He went to the market so that he could buy some fresh fruit.

‘He went to the market’ — main (independent) clause

‘so that he could buy some fresh fruit’ — subordinate (dependent) clause

There are no kinds in the main clause, except, of course, the COORDINATE CLAUSES, but in the Subordinate Clause we have three kinds.

<<< Back to Sentence /  Next Subordinate Clause >>>