Clauses

Introduction

A clause is considered as a group of words that consist of subject and predicate. A clause is formed when a subject and a predicate is aligned with a proper meaningful arrangement of verbs. In a clause, subject is the person or thing about whom the sentence is written and predicate is the part that refers to what is described of the subject. 

Discussion

What is the meaning of a clause in the language process?

According to the language process a “clause” is a set of words that have ‘subject’ and ‘predicate’ and ‘verb’ that have a relationship with subject and predicate. The relationship of verbs is very important, it means it brings information about the subject and brings a meaningful grouping of words rather than random grouping of words. In a sentence there can be a  number of clauses, it can have one clause or multiple clauses. 

The main defined characteristic of a clause is that it must contain a related subject and verb. There are many ways to combine and structure them. The clauses can be used in three ways in the process of the English language; they can be operated as a noun, adjective, and adverb. For example, “He completely understood everything she said”. In this sentence ‘everything she said’ is a dependent clause and this acts as a noun. In another sentence “He completely understood her exploitation”, ‘her explanation’ is a noun.

What are the different types of clauses?

There are four types of clauses in English.

The initial one is Independent or main clause. 

The second one is Dependent of Subordinate clause. 

An independent clause is that clause that stands alone or stands its own in a sentence. For example: “Shyam loves eating protein bars”, “The dog barks a lot”. As it is seen, mostly independent clauses are not the long and complicated sentences. They are simple sentences and can be part of different compound sentences.

The second type is the Dependent clause; it is considered that they are not complete sentences. It means they are the sentences that do not provide a complete meaning or sense, therefore they are known as a subordinate clause. For example, ‘When Rohit reached their home’, ‘Although Ramu sings well’. As it is seen that these sentences are not producing a clear meaning independently. So these kinds of clauses are considered as dependent clauses. The other clauses, like the “adjective clause” acts like an ‘adjective’, the “adverb clause” acts like an ‘adverb’. The noun clause is used in a sentence as a noun. 

Different examples of clauses

Independent clause examples: “The Himalayan mountain ranges in India are breathtaking”. In this sentence “the Himalayan mountain ranges” are the subject and “in India are breathtaking” is predicate”. This clause is providing a complete sense so it is an independent clause. “Ram wants to travel to different places in the world”, in this sentence “Ram” is the subject and “want to travel in the world” is the predicate. The clause is also providing a complete meaning on its own so it is considered as an independent clause. 

Dependent Clause examples: “when the prime minister arrives” the sentence is not providing the proper sense on its own, when it will combine with other complex or compound sentences then it will provide a complete sense so it is a dependent clause. “If they can go on Tuesday” this sentence is also not providing a complete meaning by itself. So this sentence is also a dependent clause. “Hamburgers, which most people love, are not very healthy” is an example of an adjective clause. “The street dogs started chasing my bike when they saw it turn the corner” this is an example of an adverb clause. 

Conclusion

Clauses are a set of words with a verb that can act individually or depend on another clause in a sentence. There are two types of clauses. Principal Clause or Independent clause and Dependent clause or subordinate clauses. When independent clauses are added to another clause with the help of a coordinating conjunction, they are called coordinating clauses. Clauses can determine the sentence structure classifying them into three categories – Simple, Complex and Compound Sentences.