CLAUSES

What is a clause?

A clause is a string of words including a predicate and a subject (though sometimes the subject is implied). A string of words without a subject or without a predicate is called a phrase.

What is the function of a clause?

Clauses are the building blocks of sentences: every sentence consists of one or more clauses.

You may find this difficult to understand. You may find it clearer after looking at the examples below.

CLAUSE

The boy eats ice-cream

This example is a clause, because it contains the subject "the boy" and the predicate "eats ice-cream." This is a predicate because the verb “eats” agrees with the subject “the boy”.

PHRASE

The boy eating ice-cream

What about "the boy eating ice-cream"? This noun phrase could be a subject, but it has no predicate attached to it: the adjective phrase "eating ice-cream" shows which boy the writer is talking about, but there is nothing here to show why the writer is mentioning the boy in the first place.

CLAUSE

The boy eating ice-cream is very tall

This is a complete clause again. The subject "the boy eating ice-cream" and the predicate "is very tall" make up a complete thought.

CLAUSE

Run!

This single-word command (命令) is also a clause, even though it doesn’t seem to have a subject. When giving an order, it is not necessary to mention the subject, since it is always the person or people you are talking to: in other words, the clause actually reads "[You] run!". Just as when your mother gives you an order, she doesn’t need to say “You”.

SIMPLE SENTENCES

A simple sentence always has two parts: Subject + Predicate

Since a predicate can either be “Verb” or “Verb + Object”, there are two possible forms for a simple sentence:

1) Subject + Verb (for intransitive verbs)

2) Subject + Verb + Object (for transitive verbs)

Basically, you can use one word for subject, verb or object. Therefore, a simple sentence can be as simple as this one:

Subj Verb

Sally runs

Subj Verb Obj

Tom does homework

“Tom does homework” is a clause because it has a subject and a verb. This is also called an independent clause because it can stand alone to express a complete thought. Of course, we can have not only independent clauses but dependent clauses. A dependent clause also has a subject and a verb, but it can’t stand alone to express a complete thought.

e.g. When I go to school, …

“When I go to school,” is a dependent clause. This is because the meaning of this clause is not complete on its own, but is dependent on the content of another clause. We all want to know what happens when the speaker goes to school. So the thought is not complete unless we add:

e.g. When I go to school, I always take the bus.

This is what we call a complex sentence. As well as complex sentences, we also have something called a compound sentence, but let’s focus on the basic understanding of a clause first.

Sometimes, the subject or object can be very complicated (複雜), so that one word is not enough to express the idea clearly. Here we use clauses to help. On Days 2 to 4, you will learn three kinds of clauses:

Day 2: Adjective Clause (defining)

Day 3: Adjective Clause (non-defining)

Day 4: Noun Clause

But before we go into them, let’s do the following exercises to make sure that you understand what a clause really is!