The Clause

Recognize a clause when you see one.

Clauses come in four types: main [or independent], subordinate [or dependent], adjective [or
relative], and noun. Every clause has at least a subject and a verb. Other characteristics will help
you distinguish one type of clause from another.

Main Clauses
Every main clause will follow this pattern:

subject + verb = complete thought.

Here are some examples:

Lazy students whine.

Students = subject; whine = verb.

Cola spilled over the glass and splashed onto the counter.

Cola = subject; spilled, splashed = verbs.

My dog loves pizza crusts.

Dog = subject; loves = verb.

The important point to remember is that every sentence must have at least one main clause.
Otherwise, you have a fragment, a major error.

Subordinate Clauses
A subordinate clause will follow this pattern:

subordinate conjunction + subject + verb = incomplete thought.

Here are some examples:

Whenever lazy students whine

Whenever = subordinate conjunction; students = subject; whine = verb.

As cola spilled over the glass and splashed onto the counter

As = subordinate conjunction; cola = subject; spilled, splashed = verbs.

Because my dog loves pizza crusts

Because = subordinate conjunction; dog = subject; loves = verb.

The important point to remember about subordinate clauses is that they can never stand alone as
complete sentences. To complete the thought, you must attach each subordinate clause to a main
clause. Generally, the punctuation looks like this:

main clause + Ø + subordinate clause.

subordinate clause + , + main clause.

Check out these revisions to the subordinate clauses above:

Whenever lazy students whine, Mrs. Russell throws chalk erasers at their heads.

Anthony ran for the paper towels as cola spilled over the glass and splashed onto the counter.

Because my dog loves pizza crusts, he never barks at the deliveryman.

Relative Clauses
A relative clause will begin with a relative pronoun [such as who, whom, whose, which, or that]
or a relative adverb [when, where, or why]. The patterns look like these:

relative pronoun or adverb + subject + verb = incomplete thought.

relative pronoun as subject + verb = incomplete thought.

Here are some examples:

Whom Mrs. Russell hit in the head with a chalk eraser

Whom = relative pronoun; Mrs. Russell = subject; hit = verb.

Where he chews and drools with great enthusiasm

Where = relative adverb; he = subject; chews, drools = verbs.

That had spilled over the glass and splashed onto the counter

That = relative pronoun; had spilled, splashed = verbs.

Who loves pizza crusts

Who = relative pronoun; loves = verb.

Like subordinate clauses, relative clauses cannot stand alone as complete sentences. You must
connect them to main clauses to finish the thought. Look at these revisions of the relative clauses
above:

The lazy students whom Mrs. Russell hit in the head with a chalk eraser soon learned to keep
their complaints to themselves.

My dog Floyd, who loves pizza crusts, eats them under the kitchen table, where he chews and
drools with great enthusiasm.

Anthony ran to get paper towels for the cola that had spilled over the glass and splashed onto the
counter.

Punctuating relative clauses can be tricky. You have to decide if the relative clause is essential or
nonessential and then use commas accordingly.

Essential relative clauses do not require commas. A relative clause is essential when you need
the information it provides. Look at this example:

A dog that eats too much pizza will soon develop pepperoni breath.

Dog is nonspecific. To know which dog we are talking about, we must have the information in
the relative clause. Thus, the relative clause is essential and requires no commas.

If, however, we revise dog and choose more specific words instead, the relative clause becomes
nonessential and does require commas to separate it from the rest of the sentence. Read this
revision:

My dog Floyd, who eats too much pizza, has developed pepperoni breath.

Noun Clauses
Any clause that functions as a noun becomes a noun clause. Look at this example:

You really do not want to know the ingredients in Aunt Nancy's stew.

Ingredients = noun.
If we replace the noun ingredients with a clause, we have a noun clause:

You really do not want to know what Aunt Nancy adds to her stew.

What Aunt Nancy adds to her stew = noun clause.

ADJECTIVE CLAUSES.
"There are two basic types of adjective clauses.

"The first type is the nonrestrictive or nonessential adjective clause. This clause simply gives
extra information about the noun. In the sentence, 'My older brother's car, which he bought two
years ago, has already needed many repairs,' the adjective clause, 'which he bought two years
ago,' is nonrestrictive or nonessential. It provides extra information.

"The second type is the restrictive or essential adjective clause. It offers essential [information]
and is needed to complete the sentence's thought. In the sentence, 'The room that you reserved
for the meeting is not ready,' the adjective clause, 'that you reserved for the meeting,' is essential
because it restricts which room."
(Jack Umstatter, Got Grammar? Wiley, 2007)

Examples:

 "He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead."
(Albert Einstein)
 Creatures whose mainspring is curiosity enjoy the accumulating of facts far more than the
pausing at times to reflect on those facts."
(Clarence Day)
 "Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among
those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh."
(W. H. Auden)

 “Short, fat, and of a quiet disposition, he appeared to spend a lot of money on really bad
clothes, which hung about his squat frame like skin on a shrunken toad."
(John le Carré, Call for the Dead, 1961)

 “Love, which was once believed to contain the Answer, we now know to be nothing more than
an inherited behavior pattern."
(James Thurber)

 “The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific
power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
(Martin Luther King, Jr.)

 "The IRS spends God knows how much of your tax money on these toll-free information hot
lines staffed by IRS employees, whose idea of a dynamite tax tip is that you should print neatly."
(Dave Barry)
 “On I trudged, past the carefully roped-off breeding grounds of terns, which chirruped a
warning overhead."
(Will Self, "A Real Cliff Hanger," 2008)

 “The man that invented the cuckoo clock is no more."

(Mark Twain)

 “Afterwards, in the dusty little corners where London's secret servants drink together, there
was argument about where the Dolphin case history should really begin."
(John le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, 1977)

 “The man who first abused his fellows with swear words, instead of bashing their brains out
with a club, should be counted among those who laid the foundations of civilization."
(John Cohen, 1965)

ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
The name "adverbial" suggests that adverbial clauses modify verbs; but they modify whole
clauses, as shown by the examples [below]. Their other key property is that they are adjuncts,
since they are typically optional constituents in sentences. They are traditionally classified
according to their meaning, for example adverbial clauses of reason, time, concession, manner or
condition, as illustrated below.

a. Reason
Because Marianne loved Willoughby, she refused to believe that he had deserted her.
b. Time
When Fanny returned, she found Tom Bertram very ill.
c. Concession
Although Mr D'Arcy disliked Mrs Bennet he married Elizabeth.
d. Manner
Henry changed his plans as the mood took him.
e. Condition
If Emma had left Hartfield, Mr Woodhouse would have been unhappy.

(Jim Miller, An Introduction to English Syntax. Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2002)

Examples:

 "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
(newspaper editor to Senator Ransom Stoddart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962)
 "All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and
why."
(attributed to James Thurber)

 Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it."
(Helen Keller, "Optimism: An Essay," 1903)

 "The greatest thrill in the world is to end the game with a home run and watch everybody else
walk off the field while you're running the bases on air."
(Al Rosen, third-baseman for the Cleveland Indians, 1947-1956)

 "Again at eight o’clock, when the dark lanes of the Forties were five deep with throbbing taxi
cabs, bound for the theatre district, I felt a sinking in my heart. Forms leaned together in the
taxis as they waited, and voices sang, and there was laughter from unheard jokes, and lighted
cigarettes outlined unintelligible gestures inside."
(F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925)

 "The swift December dusk had come tumbling clownishly after its dull day, and, as he stared
through the dull square of the window of the schoolroom, he felt his belly crave for its food."
(James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916)

 "Though we thumped, wept, and chanted "We want Ted" for minutes after he hid in the dugout,
he did not come back."
(John Updike, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," 1960)

 "I drank some boiling water because I wanted to whistle."

(Mitch Hedberg)

 "I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."

(Mae West)

 "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
(Sinclair Lewis, 1935)
 "When I was coming up, I practiced all the time because I thought if I didn't I couldn't do my
best."
(Herbie Hancock)

 "And when the broken hearted people

Living in the world agree,
There will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is
Still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be."
(John Lennon and Paul McCartney, "Let It Be")

 "If I ever opened a trampoline store, I don't think I'd call it Trampo-Land, because you might
think it was a store for tramps, which is not the impression we are trying to convey with our
store."
(Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts, 1992)

 "According to legend, when Lady Godiva pleaded with her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to cancel
a burdensome tax he had levied against his subjects, he agreed to do so only if she rode naked
through the city."
(Jim Hargan, "The City of Lady Godiva." British Heritage, January 2001)

 "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."
(Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture, 2008)

 A clause is a group of words that [contains] a subject and a verb. There are two major
types: independent clauses and dependent clauses. An independent clause can stand
alone as a sentence, beginning with a capital letter and ending with terminal punctuation
such as a period. A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence; instead it must be
attached to an independent clause."
(G. Lutz and D. Stevenson, The Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference, 2005)

 "When liberty is taken away by force, it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished
voluntarily by default, it can never be recovered."
(Dorothy Thompson)
 "The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.
(H.L. Mencken)

 "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

(Ernest Hemingway)

 "I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me. I lived a few weeks while you
loved me."
(Humphrey Bogart in the movie In a Lonely Place)

 "Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket."

(George Orwell)

 "Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
(Jack Benny)

 "Her hat is a creation that will never go out of style; it will just look ridiculous year after
year."
(Fred Allen)

 "Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the
end. (Sid Caesar)

 "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."

(Milton Berle)

 "What's another word for 'thesaurus'?"

(Steven Wright)

 "You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably."
(Jon Stewart to Tucker Carlson on CNN's Crossfire, Oct. 2004)
  "A schedule defends from chaos and whim."
(Annie Dillard)

SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

 "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
(Mark Twain)

 "When I'm good, I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better."
(Mae West, I'm No Angel)

 "Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events."

(Albert Einstein)

 "If you can't leave in a taxi you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a
minute and a huff.
(Groucho Marx, Duck Soup)

 "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are
rich."
(John F. Kennedy)

 "Man, when you lose your laugh, you lose your footing."
(Ken Kesey)

 "Every book is a children's book if the kid can read."

(Mitch Hedberg)

 Finite clauses are introduced by a subordinator, which serves to indicate the dependent
status of the clause together with its circumstantial meaning. Formally, subordinating
conjunctions can be grouped as follows:
o simple conjunctions: when, whenever, where, wherever, because, if, unless,
until, while, as, although
 o conjunctive groups: as if, as though, even if, even though, even when, soon after,
no sooner
o complex conjunctions:: there are three subclasses:

(i) derived from verbs . . .: provided (that), granted (that), considering (that),
seeing (that), suppose (that), supposing (that), so (that)
(ii) containing a noun: in case, in the event that, to the extent that, in spite of the
fact that, the day, the way
(iii) adverbial: so/as long as, as soon as, so/as far as, much as, now (that)

 (Angela Downing, English Grammar: A University Course. Routledge, 2006)

 Subordinate Clauses in Poetry

"When I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the
lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars."
(Walt Whitman, "When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer." Leaves of Grass)