CLAUSE

A clause is a group of related words containing a subject and a verb A clause can be usefully distinguished from a phrase, which is a group of related words that does not contain a subject-verb relationship, such as "in the morning" or "running down the street" or "having grown used to this harassment." A review of the different kinds of phrases might be helpful.

A clause is a collection of grammatically-related words including a predicate and a subject (though sometimes 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.

Clause is a part of a sentence having its own subject and predicate, eg either of the two parts of this sentence.

For example :

He was eating a bacon sandwich.

[clause]

She had a long career	but she is remembered mainly for one early work.
[clause]	[clause]

Main clause

Every sentence contains at least one main clause. A main clause may form part of a compound sentence or a complex sentence, but it also makes sense on its own, as in this example:

He was eating a bacon sandwich.

[main clause]

Compound sentences are made up of two or more main clauses linked by a conjunction such as and, but, or so, as in the following examples:

I love sport	and	I’m captain of the local football team.
[main clause]	[conjunction]	[main clause]

She was born in Spain	but	her mother is Polish.
[main clause]	[conjunction]	[main clause]

About Clauses

Learning the various terms used to define and classify clauses can be a vocabulary lesson in itself. This digital handout categorizes clauses into independent and dependent clauses. This simply means that some clauses can stand by themselves, as separate sentences, and some can't. Another term for dependent clause is subordinate clause: this means that the clause is subordinate to another element (the independent clause) and depends on that other element for its meaning. The subordinate clause is created by a subordinating conjunction or dependent word.

A subordinate clause depends on a main clause for its meaning. Together with a main clause, a subordinate clause forms part of a complex sentence. Here are two examples of sentences containing subordinate clauses:

After we had had lunch,	we went back to work.
[subordinate clause]	[main clause]

I first saw her in Paris,	where I lived in the early nineties.
[main clause]	[subordinate clause]

There is one type of subordinate clause that can cause problems, known as a relative clause.

An independent clause, "She is older than her brother" (which could be its own sentence), can be turned into a dependent or subordinate clause when the same group of words begins with a dependent word (or a subordinating conjunction in this case): "Because she is older than her brother, she tells him what to do."

Clauses are also classified as restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses. (The words essential and nonessential are sometimes used and mean the same thing as restrictive and nonrestrictive, respectively. British grammarians will make this same distinction by referring to clauses with the terms defining and non-defining.) A nonrestrictive clause is not essential to the meaning of the sentence; it can be removed from the sentence without changing its basic meaning. Nonrestrictive clauses are often set apart from the rest of the sentence by a comma or a pair of commas (if it's in the middle of a sentence).

• Professor Villa, who used to be a secretary for the President, can type 132 words a minute.

Review the Notorious Confusables section on the difference between That and Which for additional clarification on the distinction between restrictive and nonrestrictive.

Relative clauses are dependent clauses introduced by a Relative Pronoun (that, which, whichever, who, whoever, whom, whomever, whose, and of which). Relative clauses can be either restrictive or nonrestrictive. Review the section on Comma Usage for additional help in determining whether relative clauses are restrictive or nonrestrictive (parenthetical or not) and whether commas should be used to set them off from the rest of the sentence. In a relative clause, the relative pronoun is the subject of the verb (remember that all clauses contain a subject-verb relationship) and refers to (relates to) something preceding the clause.

• Giuseppe said that the plantar wart, which had been bothering him for years, had to be removed.

(In this sentence, the clause in this color is a restrictive [essential] clause [a noun clause — see below] and will not be set off by a comma; the underlined relative clause [modifying "wart"] is nonrestrictive [nonessential — it can be removed from the sentence without changing the meaning of the sentence] and is set off by commas.)

Some relative clauses will refer to more than a single word in the preceding text; they can modify an entire clause or even a series of clauses.

• Charlie didn't get the job in administration, which really surprised his friends.
  Charlie didn't get the job in administration, and he didn't even apply for the Dean's position, which really surprised his friends.

A relative clause that refers to or modifies entire clauses in this manner is called a sentential clause. Sometimes the "which" of a sentential clause will get tucked into the clause as the determiner of a noun:

• Charlie might very well take a job as headmaster, in which case the school might as well close down.

Clause consists of two type are independent clause and dependent clause.

Independent and Dependent Clauses

Independent and dependent clauses are the building blocks of sentences. A single independent clause can be a sentence, by itself. However, dependent clauses are used to make sentences more complete and more interesting. Using conjunctions and proper punctuation, dependent and independent clauses can be joined together to create interesting and complex compound sentences that are fun and engaging to read.

Independent Clauses

In independent clause is a clause that can stand on its own, by itself. It does not need to be joined to any other clauses, because it contains all the information necessary to be a complete sentences. 

Independent clauses have three components:

1. They have a subject- they tell the reader what the sentence is about
2. They have an action or predicate- they tell the reader what the subject is doing
3. They express a complete thought- something happened or was said.  

An independent clause can be as simple as a subject and a verb:

• Jim reads.

Jim is the subject. Reads is the action or verb. A complete thought was expressed- something was said, and the reader now knows that Jim likes to read.

Independent clauses can also become more complex if we add subjects, objects, prepositions, and modifying phrases: 

• Jim, who likes to read, read a book. Jim is the subject
• "Who likes to read" is a prepositional phrase that modifies Jim
• Read is the action
• A book is the object

Independent clauses can also be joined to other independent clauses, if the independent clauses are related. However, they MUST be joined using the proper punctuation.

• Jim read a book; he really enjoyed the book.The first clause is an independent clause- Jim is the subject, read is the action, book is the object
• The second clause is an independent clause- He is the subject, enjoyed is the action and the book is the object
• The independent clauses are related, so they can be joined to create a complex sentence. They are correctly joined by a semicolon. 
• Jim read a book, he really enjoyed the book. Again, we have two independent clauses, but the independent clauses are not joined properly. When two independent clauses are joined only be a comma, it is a grammatical error called a comma splice.

Independent clauses can be quite complex, but the important thing to remember is that they stand on their own and make sense alone.

There are 3 kinds of independent clause, transitive, intransitive, and equative clause.

1.     Transitive clause is a clause that is predicate fill by transitive verb. And the verb that has an object.

Example : i write a letter → the letter is written by me.

2.     Intransitive clausse is a clause that is predicate fill by intransitive verb. And the verb that has not an object.

Example : i go to school.

3.     Equative clause is a clause that is predicate fill by linking verb.

Example : it sounds good.

Dependent Clauses

Dependent Clauses cannot stand by themselves and make good sense. They must be combined with an independent clause so that they become part of a sentence that can stand by itself. (Review the section on Commas Usage for advice and plenty of exercises on the punctuation requirements when dependent and independent clauses are combined.) Unlike independent clauses, which simply are what they are, dependent clauses are said to perform various functions within a sentence. They act either in the capacity of some kind of noun or as some kind of modifier. There are three basic kinds of dependent clauses, categorized according to their function in the sentence. Remember that a dependent clause always contains a subject and a verb, but it cannot stand by itself.

A dependent clause is a clause that is lacking either a subject or an action, or does not express a complete thought.

A clause can be dependent because of the presence of a:

1. Marker Word (Before, after, because, since, in order to, although, though, whenever, wherever, whether, while, even though, even if,  
2. Conjunction (And, or, nor, but, yet).

Dependent clauses MUST be joined to another clause, in order to avoid creating a sentence fragment.

• Because I forgot my homework.

• This is a sentence fragment. We have a "because" but not a "why" or anything accompanying and following what happened "because" they forgot.

• Because I forgot my homework, I got sent home. Here, the error is corrected. "I got sent home" is an independent clause. "I" is the subject, "got" is the verb, "sent home" is the object. A complete thought is expressed.

Kinds of dependent clause:

• Adverb clauses provide information about what is going on in the main (independent) clause: where, when, or why. "When the movie is over, we'll go downtown." or "John wanted to write a book because he had so much to say about the subject."
• Adjective clauses work like multi-word adjectives. "My brother, who is an engineer, figured it out for me." or "The bridge that collapsed in the winter storm will cost millions to replace." A special kind of adjective clause begins with a relative adverb (where, when, and why) but nonetheless functions as adjectivally.
• Noun clauses can do anything that nouns can do. "What he knows [subject] is no concern of mine." or "Do you know what he knows [object]?" or "What can you tell me about what he has done this year [object of the preposition "about"]?"

	What they did with the treasure remains a mystery. Whatever you want for dessert is fine with me. That you should feel this way about her came as a great surprise to us.
	Juan finally revealed what he had done with the money. Her husband spent whatever she had saved over the years. I don't know what I should do next.
	In fact, he wrote a book about what he had done over the years. We are interested in what he does for a living.
	The trouble was that they had never been there before. The biggest disappointment of last season was that the women's team didn't make it to the final four.
	My brother, who now teaches math in a small college, never liked math in high school. The dealership that sold more cars ended up actually losing money. The Federated Bank, which was founded nearly two centuries ago, folded during the state's economic crisis.
	The team had fallen behind by ten points before they were able to figure out the opponent's defense. Since he started working nights, he doesn't see much of his kids. While Josie sat inside watching television, Gladys shoveled the driveway.

The first clause in the example above is called an adverb clause, which means that it is part of a sentence that contains a subordinating conjunction, a subject, and a verb. There are essentially six types of adverb clauses, and they can use a variety of subordinating conjunctions.

Kinds of adverbial clauses:

Kind of clause	Common conjunctions	Function	Example
Time clauses	when, before, after, since, while, as, as long as, until,till, etc. (conjunctions that answer the question "when?"); hardly, scarcely, no sooner, etc.	These clauses are used to say when something happens by referring to a period of time or to another event.	Her goldfish died when she was young.
Conditional clauses	if, unless, lest	These clauses are used to talk about a possible or counterfactual situation and its consequences.	If they lose weight during an illness, they soon regain it afterwards.
Purpose clauses	in order to, so that, in order that	These clauses are used to indicate the purpose of an action.	They had to take some of his land so that they could extend the churchyard.
Reason clauses	because, since, as, given	These clauses are used to indicate the reason for something.	I couldn't feel anger against him because I liked him too much.
Place clauses	where, wherever, anywhere, everywhere, etc. (conjunctions that answer the question "where?")	These clauses are used to talk about the location or position of something.	He said he was happy where he was.
Clauses of manner	as, like, the way	These clauses are used to talk about someone's behavior or the way something is done.	I was never allowed to do things as I wanted to do them.