Clauses

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Clause (वाक्यांश) is the small grammatical unit in a sentence which is formed from arrangement of related words. It contains subject (उदेश्य) and predicate (विधेय).

Subject: a person or a thing we talk about

Predicate: anything that is said about that person or thing. Predicate always have verb.

Types of Clauses:

Based on nature of verb, clause is of two types: non-finite clause and finite clause.

· Non-finite clause: Clause based on infinite verb is called non-finite clause. E.g.

The plane having crashed, all passengers died.

In the sentence above 'having crashed' is non-finite verb as it cannot complete the sentence. So 'The plane having crashed' is non-finite clause. 'All passengers died' is not a non-finite clause as the verb 'died' completes the sentence.

· Finite Clause: Clause based on finite verb is called finite clause. A complete sentence always have finite verb. E.g.

The plane having crashed, all passengers died.

'All passengers died' is a finite clause because it contains finite verb 'died'.

Finite Clause:

As stated above, a clause based on finite verb is called finite clause. It has two types: independent clause and dependent clause.

Independent clause (main clause):

That finite clause which contains subject and predicate, itself becomes a simple sentence (साधारण वाक्य) or a part of multi-clause sentence (संयुक्त वाक्य). In other way it doesn't require any other related words to express complete thought. E.g.

The plane having crashed, all passengers died.

Here 'all passengers died' is an independent clause as it is a complete thought. In simpler way if you say someone that 'all passengers died' then the listener understands as a complete thought. But if you say 'The plane having crashed' then the listener will not understand what you mean so it's not an independent clause.

Dependent clause (Subordinate clause):

A clause which cannot stand as complete itself and needs other clause to become complete sentence is called dependent clause. E.g.

The plane having crashed, all passengers died.

Here 'The plane having crashed' is a dependent clause as it requires another clause 'all passengers died' to be complete sentence.

Dependent clause is also of three types: Adjective (relative) clause, Noun clause and Adverb clause.

Adjective (Adjectival or Relative) clause:

A dependent clause which behaves like an adjective is called adjective clause. Remember that an adjective is a word which modifies (elaborates) noun or pronoun. An adjectival clause have any of the words among whose / whom / who / that/ which. E.g.

The place where I live is my hometown.

The clause 'where I live' modifies the noun 'place' as 'hometown' so it’s an adjective clause.

Noun (Nominal) clause:

A dependent clause which behaves like a noun is called adjective clause. A nominal clause have any word among if / whether / that / what / who / whom. E.g.

I can predict what happens next.

The clause 'what happens next' is a noun clause used as an object. To anticipate this let's rewrite the sentence as: I can predict … Now what we expect in place of … is object (noun). Sometimes adjectival clauses and nominal clauses may be hard to distinguish. We can eliminate adjectival clause from sentence but nominal clauses cannot be removed. This property helps to identify them.

Adverb (Adverbial) clause:

A dependent clause which behaves like an adverb is called adjective clause. Remember that adverb is a word that modifies the verb, adverb or adjective clause. An adverbial clause have any world among before / because / while / where / when / that / though / although / after / since / if/ as / until / unless / till. E.g.

The cold remains until the winter season continues.

Here the clause 'until the winter season continues' is adverb clause. To anticipate this let's rewrite the sentence as: The cold remains … Now what we expect in place of … is a clause that addresses the verb 'remains'.

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