Adjective, Adverb, and Noun Clauses
Grammar Rules Guide - Chapter 2
A clause is a group of related words that has both a subject and a predicate (verb or verbal phrase). A clause is different from a phrase because a phrase is a group of related words that lacks either a subject or a predicate or both.
Adjective clauses modify nouns or pronouns. An adjective clause nearly always appears immediately following the noun or pronoun.
To test for adjective clauses there are a couple questions that you can ask. Which one? What kind of? Most adjective clauses begin with who, whom, which or that. Sometimes the word may be understood. In other words, the words that or who, for example, would not specifically be in the sentence, but they would be implied. To determine the subject of a clause ask who? or what? and then insert the verb.
Example: The money that is on the table should be deposited in the bank.
Occasionally, an adjective clause is introduced by a relative adverb, usually when, where or why.
Example: Noon is the time when you eat lunch.
Adverb clauses usually modify verbs, in which case they may appear anywhere in a sentence. They tell why, where, under what conditions, or to what degree the action occurred or situation existed. Unlike adjective clauses, they are frequently movable within the sentence.
Example: When the timer rings, we know the cake is done. OR We know the cake is done when the timer rings.
Adverb clauses always begin with a subordinating conjunction. Subordinating conjunctions introduce clauses and express their relation to the rest of the sentence.
Noun clauses are not modifiers, so they are not subordinators like adjectives and adverbs and they cannot stand alone. They must function within another sentence pattern, always as nouns. A noun clause functions basically as a subject, subject complement, direct object or object of a preposition.
A noun clause usually begins with a relative pronoun like that, which, who, whoever, whomever, whose, what, and whatsoever. It can also begin with the subordinating conjunctions how, when, where, whether, why.
Example: Whoever wins the game will play in the tournament.
Grammar Rules Guide Index
Active and Passive Voice - Chapter 1
Adjective, Adverb, and Noun Clauses - Chapter 2
Adjectives - Chapter 3
Adverbs - Chapter 4
Appositives - Chapter 5
Auxiliary Verbs - Chapter 6
Common and Proper Nouns - Chapter 7
Comparatives and Superlatives - Chapter 8
Complements - Chapter 9
Conjunctions - Chapter 10
Conjunctive Adverbs - Chapter 11
Dangling Modifiers - Chapter 12
Direct and Indirect Objects - Chapter 13
Fused Sentences, Run-Ons, and Comma Splices - Chapter 14
Homophones - Chapter 15
Independent and Dependent Clauses - Chapter 16
Interjections - Chapter 17
Mass and Count Nouns - Chapter 18
Misplaced Modifiers - Chapter 19
Noun and Pronoun Case - Chapter 20
Noun and Verb Phrases - Chapter 21
Nouns - Chapter 22
Parallelism - Chapter 23
Perfect and Progressive Verb Forms - Chapter 24
Prepositional Phrases - Chapter 25
Prepositions - Chapter 26
Principal Parts of Verbs - Chapter 27
Pronoun and Antecedent Agreement - Chapter 28
Pronouns - Chapter 29
Regular and Irregular Verbs - Chapter 30
Relative Clauses - Chapter 31
Restrictive and Non-Restrictive Clauses - Chapter 32
Sentence Fragments - Chapter 33
Sentence Types - Chapter 34
Subjects and Predicates - Chapter 35
Verb Mood - Chapter 36
Verbals and Verbal Phrases - Chapter 37
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