Advanced English Grammar: Clauses

- Hello, lovely students,

and welcome back to "English with Lucy".

Today we've got a grammar lesson.

We are going back to basics.

We're going to discuss a topic

that many learners of English miss

and then they go through their lives

without understanding this one

really important thing, clauses.

In fact, many native speakers go through their lives

without understanding clauses.

Not today, it ends here.

In this video, I'm going to explain to you what are clauses,

why they're important,

and how understanding the function of clauses

will help you to improve your English.

Before we get started, as always there

is a free PDF that goes with today's lesson.

And I will say,

today's is highly important

because clauses are such an overlooked topic.

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Right. Let's get started with the lesson.

What is a clause?

You may have heard this term clause

thrown around quite a bit

but you might not know what it actually means.

A clause is a group of words that includes a subject

and a verb and forms a sentence or part of a sentence.

A clause must also have meaning on its own.

It does not need any additional modifiers

or information to make sense.

A simple sentence can be made of just one clause,

but most sentences have more than one.

A subject and a verb is a clause.

For example, the dog runs.

Subject, verb, clause, sentence on its own.

We have two basic types of clauses in English.

They have various functions so understanding their roles

is extremely important in forming proper sentences.

Let's start with the independent clause.

This is also called the main clause.

An independent clause is a group of words

that includes a subject and a verb

and can form a sentence.

It does not require the support of other clauses

as it can stand on its own.

Examples, Erica reads.

They play.

We sit.

This is a bit different from a dependent clause,

also known as a subordinate clause,

which is a group of words that is not a sentence

but adds information to the main part of a sentence.

A dependent clause is typically introduced

with a conjunction.

Words like before, because, so, or if.

It's formation, conjunction, subject, verb.

Examples, before she goes to sleep.

And we ate.

But it fell.

These examples cannot stand on their own

as independent sentences.

Thus, they are dependent clauses.

We call them dependent because, surprise,

they depend on the use of an independent clause.

Let's take one of our independent clauses

and combine it with a dependent clause.

Erica reads before she goes to sleep.

Erica reads, is independent.

Before she goes to sleep, is dependent.

Now that we know the two basic types of clauses,

let's look at our dependent clauses a bit deeper.

First type, noun clause.

A noun clause is a group of words

that contains a subject and verb,

but the entire clause acts as a single noun.

This is often a cause for confusion.

For many learners of English,

this is your moment to understand this.

Many noun clauses start with that,

how, who, what, where, when or why.

For example, she knew how it broke.

How it broke, is a noun clause.

Or we saw where they went.

Where they went, again, is a noun clause.

Here's an important tip.

You will know it's a noun clause

if you can easily replace the clause with a pronoun.

An example, she knew how it broke.

Take away, how it broke.

Replace it with a pronoun, him.

She knew him.

It works, so it was a no clause.

Now, let's discuss adverb clauses.

An adverb clause is a dependent clause

that acts as, shock, an adverb in a sentence.

They help to qualify the meanings of verbs,

adjectives, clauses, and other adverbs.

Adverb clauses help to answer when,

where, why, how, and by how much.

Adverb clauses often start

with one of the subordinating conjunctions.

After, as, though, since, because, et cetera.

These clauses are quite flexible

and can be used at the beginning,

end or middle of a sentence to add more detail.

Here's an example.

If you pay for the snacks.

Or, because she was early.

Let's look at them in a sentence.

If you pay for the snacks, I'll get the pizza.

We can swap them round.

I'll get the pizza, if you pay for the snacks.

Or, Paula had to help set up

because she was early.

Or, because she was early, Paula had to help set up.

Now let's talk about adjective clauses.

An adjective clause is a group of words

that acts as an, can you guess?

Adjective in a sentence.

They are dependent clauses that give more information

about a noun or a pronoun.

They typically come directly after the noun they modify.

We often use words like that, which,

whom and who' with ave clauses.

Some examples, whose birthday is tomorrow,

which we are going to visit in spring.

Let's look at these clauses in sentences.

Constantine, whose birthday is tomorrow,

is going to be late.

Or, mom's hometown, which we are going to visit in spring,

is very far away.

Notice how the adjective clause gives more information

about the noun that comes directly before it.

We now know that Constantine has a birthday tomorrow.

We also know that the speaker

will be visiting their mom's hometown in spring.

If you take away these clauses,

the sentences still make sense.

Constantine is going to be late.

Mom's hometown is very far away.

We now have a different type of clause

and it is our final one too,

it's a coordinate clause.

These are two or more independent clauses in a sentence,

often joined by coordinate conjunctions,

and, or, but, and so on,

that make separate statements

that each have equal importance.

We form compound sentences

by linking together coordinate clauses.

We will discuss sentence structure in another video.

When that video is ready,

I will put it in the description box.

An example, she's travelling by train,

but she prefers to travel by car.

Both clauses in this compound sentence

function as independent clauses

that can stand alone as individual sentences.

They are linked together

by the coordinate conjunction, but.

Therefore these two clauses are coordinate clauses.

That's it for me today.

Now it's time for you to complete your exercises.

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I will see you soon for another lesson.

Bye.

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