What Are Clauses?

Wow. That was short! You won't have a hard time memorizing that definition! (You should memorize it, by the way.)

So, groups of words with a subject and a verb... You may be wondering, "What else is there?" Think of these opposed to phrases, which do not have a subject and a verb.

There are two main types: independent (these can stand alone) and dependent, or subordinate (these cannot stand alone).

There are three different types of subordinate clauses: adjective (relative), adverb, and noun.

Diagramming

These diagrams should serve as an introduction to each type. You can test yourself with sentence diagramming exercises about clauses.

Independent:

These can stand all alone without any help. There are not different types of these.

Subordinate

These (adjective, adverb, and noun) are types of subordinate clauses.

This means that they cannot stand alone as a sentence because they make up only part of a sentence. They are sentence fragments.

See more examples of diagramming clauses.

Adjective:

These function as adjectives. That means that they describe nouns or pronouns. Sometimes they are called relative clauses.

Adjective clauses are introduced by words that are called relative pronouns. There are only five relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, that, which

You can see from the diagram that it is connected to the word book by a dotted line. This shows us that the clause describes the word book.

Adverb:

These function as adverbs. That means that they describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

You can see from the diagram that it is connect to the word read by a dotted line. This shows us that the clause describes the word read.

Noun:

These act as nouns. In the example below, it is acting as the direct object of the sentence.

Back to English Grammar Home Page

Have Fun & Learn Grammar Now!

Learn Grammar the Easy Way: Diagramming Sentences