Introduction to Subordinate Clauses
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Make
the Sentence from the Clause, Part 1 Objective:
By the end of this lesson, you should understand that subordinate clauses follow
most of the same rules as main clauses. Introduction Remember: clause
= sentence One
of the most important skills that we can learn is "make the sentence from
the clause." That means that whenever we have a subordinate clause, we have
a sentence. Note:
There are NO commas in these exercises. For this skill we should be able to complete
the exercises successfully WITHOUT looking for commas. Step
1, Easier: Adverb Clauses Objective:
By the end of this lesson, you should understand that the first word (if, because,
although, when, where, so that, etc.) in this type of clause is NOT part of
the "sentence from the clause." Adverb
clauses are the easiest ones to understand because the subordinating conjunctions
that we use to make an adverb clause are not part of the sentence. Instructions
- Find the
subordinate clause.
- Make
the sentence from the clause.
- Notice
that we did not use the subordinating conjunction in the "sentence from the
clause."
We
can see an example in the first question. | Answers
1. | Sentence | I
went to bed because I was sleepy. | Sub
Clause | because
I was sleepy | Sentence
from the clause | I
was sleepy | 2. | Sentence | I
study hard so that I can raise my TOEFL score. | Sub
Clause | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
3. | Sentence | I
like to listen to jazz when I am studying. | Sub
Clause | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
4. | Sentence | Because
I wanted to learn Japanese I took an intensive class at the community college
at night. | Sub
Clause | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
5. | Sentence | If
you should need a hand I would be more than delighted to help you. |
Sub
Clause | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
6. | Sentence | After
I got home from school I sat down in front of the TV and didn't think about TOEFL
for the rest of the night. | Sub
Clause | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
7. | Sentence | My
language skills while they are getting better every day could still stand improvement. |
Sub
Clause | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
Answers
Step
2, Medium: Adjective Clauses Objective:
By the end of this lesson, you should understand that the first word (that,
who, whom, which, where, when, etc.) in these clauses IS part of the "sentence
from the clause." Adjective
clauses are a little bit harder than adverb clauses because the first word has
two functions: The
Two Functions of a Relative Pronoun - first,
the first word in the clause (that, which, who, whom, when, where, etc.)
is a connector
- second,
the subordinating conjunction is also a pronoun--that means it replaces
another noun.
We
just learned that the subordinating conjunction in an adjective clause replaces
another noun. That noun has a special name--it is called the head noun. Instructions
- Find the
subordinate clause.
- Find
the head noun. We MUST use the head noun in the "sentence from the clause."
- Find
the first word (the relative pronoun).
- Make
the sentence from the clause.
- We
must make sure that the head noun is in our new sentence.
- We
should realize that the relative pronoun does NOT include a determiner. In other
words, sometimes we will have to add the, a, my, her, etc.
- We
should notice that the first word (the relative pronoun) = the head noun.
- We
should notice that we need to use the first word (the relative pronoun) in the
"sentence from the clause."
We
can see an example in the first question. Answers |
8. | Sentence | The
car that you bought is really nice. | Sub
Clause | that
you bought | Head
Noun | car |
Sentence
from the clause | you
bought the car | 9. | Sentence | I
bought the book that you told me about. | Sub
Clause | |
Head
Noun | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
10. | Sentence | The
woman whom we met was very helpful. | Sub
Clause | |
Head
Noun | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
11. | Sentence | The
city that I am from is Kyoto. | Sub
Clause | |
Head
Noun | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
12. | Sentence | The
store that we went to had really good prices on clothes. |
Sub
Clause | |
Head
Noun | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
13. | Sentence | People
who study hard and go to school every day usually get better grades. |
Sub
Clause | |
Head
Noun | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
14. | Sentence | The
movie that we were talking about was too long and boring for me. |
Sub
Clause | |
Head
Noun | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
Answers
Step
3, Harder: Noun Clauses Objective:
By the end of this lesson, we should realize that the first word in these clauses
is SOMETIMES part of the "sentence from the clause" and sometimes NOT
part of the "sentence from the clause." Noun
clauses are a little bit harder than adjective clauses because the subordinating
conjunction sometimes has only one function (it only joins two clauses)
and sometimes the subordinating conjunction has two functions (it joins
two clauses and is also a pronoun). In other words, sometimes the subordinating
conjunction only connects, sometimes it connects and replaces another noun. Instructions
- Find the
subordinate clause.
- Look
at the first word. Decide whether it is a subordinating conjunction or a relative
pronoun.
- Make
the sentence from the clause.
- As
we are doing this exercise, we should notice that the first word that is
NOT a relative pronoun, but that the first word what IS a relative pronoun.
Answers |
15. | Sentence | I
know that you are smart. | Sub
Clause | |
SC
or RP? | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
16. | Sentence | What
you said was pretty funny. | Sub
Clause | |
SC
or RP? | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
17. | Sentence | I
need to know which car you want to buy. | Sub
Clause | |
SC
or RP? | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
18. | Sentence | I
know when you left last night. | Sub
Clause | |
SC
or RP? | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
19. | Sentence | I
know how many languages you speak. | Sub
Clause | |
SC
or RP? | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
20. | Sentence | I
was really surprised by what she said. | Sub
Clause | |
SC
or RP? | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
21. | Sentence | How
much money your friends make should not be important to the friendship. |
Sub
Clause | |
SC
or RP? | |
Sentence
from the clause | |
Answers |
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