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

  1. Find the subordinate clause.
  2. Make the sentence from the clause.
  3. Notice that we did not use the subordinating conjunction in the "sentence from the clause."

We can see an example in the first question.

 

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 so that I can raise my TOEFL score
Sentence from the clause I can raise my TOEFL score.
3. Sentence I like to listen to jazz when I am studying.
Sub Clause when I am studying
Sentence from the clause I am studying
4. Sentence Because I wanted to learn Japanese I took an intensive class at the community college at night.
Sub Clause Because I wanted to learn Japanese
Sentence from the clause I wanted to learn Japanese.
5. Sentence If you should need a hand I would be more than delighted to help you.
Sub Clause If you should need a hand
Sentence from the clause You should need a hand.
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 After I got home from school
Sentence from the clause I got home from school.
7. Sentence My language skills while they are getting better every day could still stand improvement.
Sub Clause while they are getting better every day 
Sentence from the clause They are getting better every day.

 

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

  1. first, the first word in the clause (that, which, who, whom, when, where, etc.) is a connector
  2. 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

  1. Find the subordinate clause.
  2. Find the head noun. We MUST use the head noun in the "sentence from the clause."
  3. Find the first word (the relative pronoun).
  4. Make the sentence from the clause.
  5. We must make sure that the head noun is in our new sentence.
  6. 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.
  7. We should notice that the first word (the relative pronoun) = the head noun.
  8. 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.

 
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 that you told me about
Head Noun book
Sentence from the clause You told me about the book.
10. Sentence The woman whom we met was very helpful.
Sub Clause whom we met
Head Noun woman
Sentence from the clause We met the woman.
11. Sentence The city that I am from is Kyoto.
Sub Clause that I am from
Head Noun city
Sentence from the clause I am from Kyoto.
12. Sentence The store that we went to had really good prices on clothes.
Sub Clause that we went to
Head Noun store
Sentence from the clause We went to the store.
13. Sentence People who study hard and go to school every day usually get better grades.
Sub Clause who study hard and go to school every day
Head Noun people
Sentence from the clause People study hard and go to school every day.
14. Sentence The movie that we were talking about was too long and boring for me.
Sub Clause that we were talking about
Head Noun movie
Sentence from the clause We were talking about the movie.

 

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

  1. Find the subordinate clause.
  2. Look at the first word. Decide whether it is a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun.
  3. Make the sentence from the clause.
  4. 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.

 

 
15. Sentence I know that you are smart.
Sub Clause that you are smart
SC or RP? sc
Sentence from the clause You are smart.
16. Sentence What you said was pretty funny.
Sub Clause what you said
SC or RP? rp
Sentence from the clause You said something.
17. Sentence I need to know which car you want to buy.
Sub Clause which car you want to buy
SC or RP? sc
Sentence from the clause You want to buy which car.
18. Sentence I know when you left last night.
Sub Clause when you left last night
SC or RP? sc
Sentence from the clause You left last night.
19. Sentence I know how many languages you speak.
Sub Clause how many languages you speak
SC or RP? sc
Sentence from the clause you speak languages
20. Sentence I was really surprised by what she said.
Sub Clause what she said
SC or RP? rp
Sentence from the clause She said something.
21. Sentence How much money your friends make should not be important to the friendship.
Sub Clause how much money your friends make
SC or RP? sc
Sentence from the clause Your friends make money.