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:

1. Independent

These can stand alone. They express a complete thought.

2. Subordinate

These cannot stand alone. They don't express a complete thought.

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

They are also called dependent.

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

1. Adjective

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

They 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.

2. Adverb

These function as adverbs. That means that they describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Read more about these.

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.

Elliptical clauses are a type of adverb clause. They are subordinate, and they act as adverbs, but some of their words are implied. You can read more about them here.

3. Noun

These act as nouns. Read more about these.

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

Learn more sentence diagramming with these English grammar exercises.

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