What Are Clauses?

When learning sentence structures like simple, compound, and complicated sentence forms, they must also learn about independent and dependent clauses. 

Having a thorough knowledge of the many sorts of clauses in English is one of the greatest methods to improve language at the sentence level, despite its complexity.

Improve your sentences’ clarity, concision, and correctness, and your paragraphs will improve as well (and so, therefore, will your essays and grades). 

Here, in this article, we will focus mainly on an extensive explanation of the different kinds of sentences and their significance in academic writing.

Clauses — What are They?

Clauses are a group of words that comprises a linked subject and verb. This link is critical; rather than being a random arrangement of words, a phrase contains information about what the subject is or is doing. 

A clause may often—but not always—function as a standalone sentence because it conveys action or a state of being.

There may be just one clause in a sentence or numerous clauses. A clause’s sole distinguishing feature must have a linked subject and verb.

Clauses serve many different functions in English; thus, there are many different ways to arrange and combine them.

Even though you use clauses in your speech and writing daily, it’s easy to ignore the nuances of clauses in English.

 Learn how clauses are categorized, what functions they play in sentences, how to mix clauses to express yourself, and the distinction between independent and dependent clauses by reading on.

How to Classify Clauses in English?

A clause sits between a phrase and a sentence in terms of conveying a full notion. In many circumstances, a clause may be used as a whole sentence. 

A term, on the other hand, cannot. 

The clause, in this case, might be a standalone sentence. It may also be used as a component of a longer phrase.

Consider the following scenario:

Difference Between Clauses and Sentences

When learning sentence-level grammar, this is often the first thing you’ll ask yourself.

Contrary to popular belief, a single clause may constitute a sentence, but a sentence does not have to be made up of a single clause. This is due to the fact that sentences are made up of one or more clauses. 

Difference Between Independent and Dependent Clauses

Sentence structures are clearly made up of a pattern of independent and dependent clauses.

All clauses, except non-finite sentences, need a subject and a verb; therefore, what distinguishes dependent and independent clauses?

A comparison may be found in the following two tables:

What are the Types of Clauses?

A clause is a series of connected words, similar to a phrase, but it contains a subject and verb, unlike a phrase.

An independent clause contains a full notion and may stand alone as a cohesive phrase in addition to having a subject and verb. 

A subordinate or dependent phrase, on the other hand, does not represent a full notion and so is not a sentence. 

Dependent Clauses

A dependent clause is an incomplete sentence. Subordinate clauses are another name for dependent clauses. These clauses, as their name says, rely on independent clauses to explain concepts effectively. 

Three key grammar rules of dependent clauses

Let’s start with three of the most popular dependent clause rules. 

Rule 1: The first guideline is to introduce dependent clauses.

Proper subordinate conjunctions should be used, the most frequent of which are listed below. 

Because each of these conjunctions has a particular meaning, indicating things like cause, concession, and condition, you should study them thoroughly:

Rule 2: You should never construct a dependent clause without including at least one independent clause.

This is because a single dependent clause results in an ungrammatical phrase, known as an incomplete sentence fragment:

Rule 3: The third and final rule is likewise shown by these two situations.

When it begins with a dependent clause, a comma must be used to separate the dependent from the independent clause. 

What are Adjective, Adverbial, and Noun Clauses?

We will look at the three sorts of finite dependent clauses in this section: adjective, adverbial, and noun clauses.

We’ll go over their structure, purpose, and distribution, as well as the most significant grammatical rules. 

Each of these three forms of dependent clauses has a subject and a verb that may be adjusted for a time through tense and aspect as finite clauses. 

As a Noun Clause:

The phrase “everything she instructed” in this example is a dependent clause that functions as a noun since it conveys the precise “thing” that the instructor, the sentence’s subject, understands.

The dependent clause could be substituted with his explanation, and the phrase would still be correct:

Try replacing a sentence with a noun to see whether it’s a noun clause. You have a noun clause if your statement still makes sense.

In a sentence, a noun clause replaces the noun. To describe or change the sentence’s topic, it is followed by a connecting or copular verb.

Noun clauses are consisted of a subject and a verb, unlike noun phrases.

As an Adverbial Clause

Dependent clauses that operate as adverbs are known as adverb clauses or adverbial clauses.

Adverb clauses, on the other hand, contain a subject and a verb and are used to describe an adjective/verb/another adverb.

Adverb clauses must include subordinating conjunction to link them to the remainder of the sentence since they are dependent clauses.

You’ll be able to distinguish an adverb clause if you can find subordinating conjunction. Below are a few instances of subordinating conjunctions.

While adverb clauses are a bit more sophisticated than single adverbs, they are highly valuable for describing how and why things happen in your writing.

By altering the pace of your sentences as you begin to employ subordinating conjunctions and dependent clauses in your writing, you may add interest.

Adverb clauses assist in building a comprehensive image for the reader by layering vital information.

Examine several adverb clause examples to gain a feel of how these descriptors might help you enhance your writing.

As an Adjectival Clause

An adjective clause or known as relative clause, is a sort of dependent clause used to characterize a noun in a sentence. Even though it is made up of a combination of words rather than a single word, it serves as an adjective. When using an adjective phrase to modify a noun or pronoun, all of the words function together.

Using adjective clauses in your writing may help you convey more information about the nouns and pronouns in your work.

This additional explanation will enhance your work and assist the reader in better understanding your point.

You’ll have no issue recognizing adjective clauses and punctuating them appropriately in your work once you understand relative pronouns and how to differentiate between essential and non-essential clauses.

This would be a good opportunity to brush up on the differences between independent and dependent clauses with all this mention about clauses.

Are Participial and Infinitival Clauses Important?

However, not all clauses are finite. Non-finite sentences are especially intriguing (and problematic) since they don’t necessarily contain subjects, which is one of the most important aspects of a clause. 

Furthermore, their verbs cannot express time via tense changes, resulting in a non-finite definition.

Their further classification as participial (A) and infinitival (B) clauses is based on whether their verb is a present/past participle/an infinitive:

What Makes a Clause Non-finite?

Non-finite clauses, unlike their finite counterparts, do not often have subjects and are made up of verbs that cannot indicate tense differences. 

In other words, non-finite dependent clauses like ‘practicing for the stage play’ or ‘to become eligible for the position’ convey the same events or states whether they occurred before, during, or after other events. 

Non-finite clauses, which are divided into two forms (participial and infinitival), may be particularly useful for people using English for academic purposes since they allow for the transmission of information more shortly and concisely.

Participial Clauses

The current participial phrase is the first of at least five kinds of participial clauses.

There are no subjects in these phrases; hence the present participle (‘-ing’) form of the verb is required. They are capable of expressing actions:

The present participial clause with a subject is the second subtype, as seen in the two instances below (the second of which is a reduced relative clause):

Perfect participial clauses may be formed using the present participle form of ‘have.’ There are two methods to employ this third subtype:

To explain that one action occurred before another action:

• Having informed everyone, the teacher soon realized that she hadn’t made the corrections.

To show that the previous action occurred over a certain period of time:

Having taught there for years, the instructor was given a loyalty award. 

Past participial clauses with the ‘–ed’ or ‘–en’ past participles are very useful, especially for reducing the length of passive-voice finite sentences:

The workers were disappointed by the company’s lack of concern and appealed for a wage increase.

“Disappointed by the company’s lack of concern, the workers appealed for a wage increase.”

The final report was presented by the doctors.

“This is the final report submitted by the doctors.”

Finally, gerund participial clauses that utilize the present participle (‘-ing’) verb form takes the place of the sentence’s subjects and objects. 

Infinitival Clauses

The infinitival clause is the last form of the dependent clause.

An infinitive in English is a verb that has the word ‘to‘ inserted right before it, such as ‘to work‘ or ‘to jump‘ (although, as you’ll see in the table below, bare infinitives without ‘to‘ are also available). 

The verb that follows ‘to’ in such formations is considered to be non-finite because, unlike participials, it cannot convey temporal differences via tense. 

As shown below, you should understand and use at least seven different forms of infinitival clauses:

Independent Clauses

A clause that may stand alone as a sentence is known as an independent clause. Consider the following examples:

Independent clauses aren’t big or complicated sentences, as you can see. They may surely be found in complicated statements, yet they are classified as simple sentences by definition. 

Complex, compound, and compound-complex sentences are examples of other sentence kinds. 

Each sentence is made up of a different set of independent and dependent clauses. Soon, we’ll look at how to join clauses to make various types of sentences.

What Builds Independent Clauses?

Though all clauses (and hence sentences) must include a subject and a verb to be grammatically correct, these aren’t the only phrase functions available to English speakers when constructing independent clauses. 

Any of the five phrase functions – subject, verb, object, complement, and adverbial – may be used in a single independent clause:

Counting how many different subjects and verbs there are in a sentence is one way to figure out how many clauses there are.

A single independent clause, also known as a simple sentence, is required when a sentence includes just one subject and verb.

Is it Possible to Mix Independent Clauses?

Independent clauses may be joined to make complex sentences and simple phrases. 

A compound sentence is made up of two or more separate clauses that are connected together by a coordinating conjunction (like ‘and,”so,’ or ‘but,’), a conjunctive adverb (like ‘although,’ or ‘therefore,’), or a semicolon (;):

Other sentence patterns, such as complex and compound-complex sentences, rely on independent clauses as well; however, these structures also need at least one dependent clause and one subordinating conjunction.

What are the 6 Rules of English Independent Clauses?

Rule #1: Recognize Sentence Fragments

A sentence is not grammatical unless it has at least one independent phrase with a subject and verb. Sentence fragments are this kind of sentence.

 Keep an eye out for any fragments that (a) only include dependent clauses, (b) only comprise phrases and not sentences, and (c) have no subject or main verb while editing your work before submission. 

If you want to improve your grammar, learn to recognize and repair these problems (our course on sentence fragments may help):

Rule #2: Fix Run-on Sentences

Any sentence that has clauses that have not been combined appropriately is referred to be a sentence run-on or ‘fused’ sentence. 

When two separate clauses are brought together to produce a compound phrase without the right punctuation mark or conjunctive word, this results in a run-on:

Leslie was feeling very ill last night she can’t attend the meeting today.

Rule #3: Avoid Comma Splicing

Similarly, a comma splice occurs when two separate phrases are connected together with just a comma. 

The three methods for correcting a sentence run-on are also applicable to the comma splice below:

Leslie was feeling very ill last night, she can’t attend the meeting today.

Rule #4: Use the Right Conjunctions

Students should memorize and utilize these conjunctive terms correctly because coordinating conjunctions are used to connect independent clauses to each other, and subordinating conjunctions are used to connect dependent clauses to independent or dependent clauses. 

Here are a few of the more frequent ones:

Rule #5: Make Use of Conjunctive Adverbs

In academic circumstances, conjunctive adverbs may also be employed to unite or introduce separate phrases. 

These and other conjunctive words, however, have stringent punctuation requirements that must be fulfilled, as detailed in Rule 6:

Rule #6: Check your Punctuation

Full stops (.), commas (,), and semi-colons (;) are the three punctuation symbols that pupils must master when utilizing independent clauses:

• To signify the conclusion of both simple and complex sentences (made up of one independent clause), use full stops (made of 2 or more independent clauses)

• When using coordinating conjunction like ‘and’ or ‘not’ to unite two separate clauses, use a comma before the conjunction

• Never use merely a comma to join two separate sentences, since this will result in an ungrammatical comma. 

• When combining two independent sentences with a conjunctive adverb like ‘although’ or ‘therefore,’ place a semicolon preceding the adverb and a comma after it.

Relative Clauses

Even though many students are unsure what a clause is, they will have come across relative clauses when learning English grammar. 

Relative clauses, often known as adjective clauses because they change nouns in the same way as adjectives do, are widespread and highly valuable. They may, however, be rather tough because of their variety and regulations.

What Makes this Clause Unique?

Relative clauses, on the other hand, are dependent clauses. They include a subject and a verb like other clauses, but relative clauses are unique in that they’re used to describe, identify, or offer more information about a noun or noun phrase. 

What are Relative Clauses, and Are They Important?

Relative clauses are clearly common and useful for English speakers, but since this grammatical structure is easy to misunderstand, students must be able to build and apply them appropriately. 

This is chiefly significant if you want to create correct and logical essays and get good scores, as well as shorten your writing. 

You could want to integrate two current phrases into one sentence that includes a relative clause to lower your word count or boost the dynamism of your sentence patterns, for example. 

The pronouns ‘what/whatever‘ and ‘whoever/whomever‘, as well as the adverbs ‘where‘ and ‘when,’ may occasionally be used to initiate relative sentences.

Are Relative Clauses Important?

Relative clauses are clearly common and useful for English speakers, but since this grammatical structure is easy to misunderstand, it’s critical that students be able to build and apply them appropriately. 

This is mainly vital if you want to create correct and logical essays and get good scores, as well as shorten your writing. 

What are the Types of Relative Clauses?

Free Relative Clauses:

Unlike their bound counterparts, free relative clauses are not constrained to previous phrase components like subjects and objects. 

The sentence ‘what you provided’, for example, does not explain or identify anything in the previous word ‘I evaluated,’ but is just the object of the verb ‘grade,’ as seen below.

This category is special since the word ‘what’ may be employed as a relative pronoun while being much less prevalent than bound relative clauses. 

When generating free relative clauses about individuals, English speakers should use ‘who/whom/whoever/whomever‘, whereas those about objects should use ‘what/whatever/whichever‘.

Restrictive Relative Clause

In English, restrictive (also known as defining) relative clauses are quite prevalent.

The information provided by a relative clause is required to fully grasp or identify the previous noun, which makes it restrictive/defining. 

The term’s meaning alters if the relative clause ‘who works hard to achieve their goals’ is removed from the following sentence, for example.

The meaning of the sentence is ‘only dedicated students will succeed,’ but without it, ‘any student can succeed‘:

Non-Restrictive Relative Clause 

Relative clauses that are non-restrictive (or non-defining) convey extra information. While the relative clause ‘who loves to play games with the students’ is fascinating and essential, it is not required for defining or recognizing the preceding noun phrase ‘the teacher’:

When introducing non-restrictive relative clauses in spoken English, we normally stop, although in writing, we use bracketing commas (,).

It’s also worth noting that, whereas restrictive relative clauses may only change nouns and noun phrases, non-restrictive relative clauses can convey additional information about an entire expression, as in the sentence:

Summary Table of Clauses

Why are Clauses Important in Academic Writing?

You should employ a variety of sentence lengths to hold your readers’ interest. Others should be brief and to the point, while others should be lengthy and flowing. 

Your reader will get bored if every sentence in your paper has the same length (or near to the same length). Changing the length of your sentences adds rhythm to your writing and makes it seem more alive.

You need to understand that sentence structure is crucial because it provides us with a foundation for expressing our thoughts clearly in writing. 

When writing, the goal is to use entire sentences that are punctuated appropriately. In order to vary your structure, you need to understand the use of clauses as well as when and where to add them. 

Every phrase you compose has a distinct function. Use a lengthy or short statement, depending on the situation.

Additional FAQs – Sentence Clauses