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What is a Clause? Children’s Definition

A clause is a feature of written English. Put simply, a clause is a group of words that includes a subject and a verb.

Clauses are what make up a sentence. They are groups of words that contain a subject and a verb. They can be the main clause, a coordinate clause or a subordinate clause. It’s important that children understand what a clause is because it’s one of the building blocks of written English.A clause example is:

The subject of this clause is the fast, red squirrel, and the verb is ‘darted’. This can also be called a simple sentence.

There are three basic forms of the clause that can be used in a sentence, these include a main/ independent clause, a subordinate clause, the adjective clause, and the noun clause. While the independent clause could be used by itself as a complete sentence, the subordinate clause could not. For it to be correct, it would need to be paired with another clause: ‘When the man broke into the house, the dog barked at him.’

A word is a small unit that has meaning, for example, ‘Car‘ can be embellished by adding small groups of words that allow meaning to be explained. For example:

The shiny, blue car

A clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb that is normally used to add more detail to the noun in a sentence. A subject is a noun or pronoun in the sentence, while the verb is the action. An example of this clause is:

The shiny, blue car raced around the track.

The subject of the clause here is the ‘shiny, blue car’ and the verb is ‘raced.’ This is also known as a simple sentence.

What Are The Different Types of Clauses?

1. What is the main clause?

The main clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb and can form a complete sentence on its own. Main clauses are also often referred to as independent clauses as they don’t need any additional information to make sense. They can stand alone perfectly fine without the support of another clause. They express a complete thought.

Sentences can consist of two main clauses or a main clause and another type of clause. When there is only one main clause and another different type of clause, the second clause depends on the main clause to make sense.

Examples of main clauses include:

• The cat mewed.
• His car broke down at the station.
• The girl laughed loudly.

2. What are subordinate clauses?

Unlike main clauses, subordinate clauses need a little help to make sense and they are also often referred to as dependent clauses.A subordinate clause is a clause that can’t stand alone as a complete sentence, even though it contains a subject and a verb. It doesn’t contain a complete thought as the main clause does. It has to be linked to the main clause, using a subordinating conjunction.

Examples of Subordinate clauses include:

• Sitting happily, the chicken laid eggs.
• The chicken, who was busy laying eggs, sat happily.
• Looking over the hill, she sighed wistfully.
• She sighed wistfully, looking over the hill.
• The girl, who was looking over the hill, sighed wistfully.

‘Sitting happily’ is a subordinate clause because it’s not a complete thought. It needs the main clause, ‘the chicken laid eggs’, to make any sense to the reader. Because of this, a subordinate clause is known as a type of dependent clause.

3. What are coordinate clauses?

A coordinate clause is made when you connect two independent clauses that are of equal importance. These clauses are connected by coordinating conjunctions. Similar to subordinate clauses, coordinate clauses also combine two sentences, so it can be difficult to get the difference between them right. A good way to remember the difference between the two is to first think of the meaning of ‘coordinate’. To coordinate means to work together on equal standing. A coordinate clause contains two sentences with equal importance. So, just remember that in a coordinate clause, the two sentences are working together as a team to make one coordinate clause.

Examples of coordinate clauses include:

• He wanted to go to the beach but it started raining.
• You can feed the dog or you can wash the dishes.
• They have homework to do yet they keep putting it off.

These two clauses are connected by a coordinating conjunction.

• I like chocolate and I like sweets.

Both ‘I like chocolate’ and ‘I like sweets’ are main clauses that can make sense independently. They’ve been joined together by the coordinating conjunction, ‘and’, to make a coordinate clause.

4. What are adjective clauses?

An adjective clause begins with a relative pronoun (such as whom, whose, which, or that) or a relative adverb (when, where, or why). This type of clause includes a relative pronoun or adverb alongside a subject and/or a verb. Similar to a subordinate clause, an adjective clause is a dependent clause because it relies on the rest of the sentence to make sense.

A good tip for remembering how to spot an adjective clause is to watch out for certain words. The only words that can be used to introduce an adjective clause are relative pronouns(who, whose, whom, which or that) and subordinating conjunctions(when and where).

Examples of adjective clauses include:

• The girl who has short hair is laughing.
• Toby whose dad is a vet life next door.
• The book which has the dragon on the cover is my favorite.
• The stray cat that I pet sometimes is friendly.
• Those people whose names are on the list will go camping.

Similar to a subordinate clause, an adjective clause is a dependent clause because it relies on the rest of the sentence to make sense. The phrase ‘whose names are on the list isn’t a complete thought, so it wouldn’t make sense all on its own.

5. What are noun clauses?

A noun clause is any clause that works in the same way as a noun. In other words, you could replace the clause with a noun, and it would still make sense. Noun clauses act in the same way as a noun or pronouns. It contains a subject and a verb, but not a complete thought, so it can’t stand as its own sentence. A noun clause starts with a pronoun or subordinating conjunction.

Examples of noun clauses include:

• Do you know what you’re going to wear?
• Do you know what dress to wear?
• Do you know where the café is?
• The café where I work is just over there.

6. What are adverb clauses?

An adverb clause is a dependent clause that doesn’t make sense on its own. It relies on another, independent clause to make sense. This is why they’re sometimes called dependent adverb clauses too. An adverb clause offers a description and modifies the sentence, similar to how an adverb does. It contains a subject and a verb, but it doesn’t express a complete thought.

Examples of adverb clauses include:

• She walked slowly.
• She walked like an old lady.
• She walked as if she were heading to the gallows.

What Are Clause Examples?

• During the day, Dracula slept in a coffin – The subject of this clause is ‘Dracula’. The verb is ‘slept’. ‘During the day is a phrase because there’s no verb.
• When the Moon shone, he lurked in the shadows. – The subject of the first clause is ‘the Moon’. The verb is ‘shone’. The subject of the second clause is ‘he’. The verb is ‘lurked’.
• He stalked a pretty milkmaid, who lived in the neighboring village. – Here, the subject of the first clause is ‘he’, the verb is ‘stalked’ and the subject of the second clause is who’.

How Do You Identify a Clause In a Sentence?

There are many simple ways that you can identify different types of clauses in a sentence through its structure and choice of nouns, adjectives, and connectives. Read this simple breakdown of how to identify a clause.

• Noun clause: To identify whether a dependent clause is a noun clause, see if you can replace the clause with a pronoun (he/she/it/them) or noun.
• Adjective clause/relative clause: An adjective clause takes the place of an adjective in a clause or phrase. It acts just like an adjective: it describes a noun or pronoun. It’s also known as a relative clause.
• Adverb clause: An adverb clause is a dependent clause that doesn’t make sense on its own. It relies on another, independent clause to make sense. This is why they’re sometimes called dependent adverb clauses, too. You can spot an adverb clause as it answers the question of how, when, where, and why something happened. It gives an explanation for the independent clause and provides more detail and information.

When Are Children Taught about Clauses?

KS1: Learning about clauses in KS1

From the start of primary school, children learn to write sentences with 2 clauses in them during their English and writing lessons.

Year 1 – children will write sentences with 2 clauses joined by the word ‘and’.

Year 2 – children learn about subordinate clauses and coordinate clauses. They’ll use main clauses and subordinate clauses to make complex sentences using ‘if’, ‘that’, or ‘because.’

KS2: Learning about clauses in KS2

Year 3 to Year 6 – children will further develop their understanding of clauses in writing simple, compound, and complex sentences and will learn more complicated connectives like ‘because’, ‘however’ etc.

In year 6, they need to be able to understand the following terms:

• • connective;
  • clause;
  • subordinate clause;
  • simple sentence;
  • main clause;
  • compound sentence;
  • complex sentence.

They may be tested on these in the KS2 SATs Grammar, punctuation, and spelling test at the end of year 6.

By the time pupils enter secondary school and KS3, they should have a clear understanding of each type of clause. They should be able to explain terms as well.

Teaching Clauses with ENGLISH LOVERS

There are different types of clauses that can make teaching this topic a multi-step process. As with most new topics, start with the simplest form of a clause (main clause) and then move on to the more complex types of clauses, such as embedded clauses and subordinate clauses.

Below are a few resources to give you inspiration on how you can use ENGLISH LOVERS to support your teaching of clauses.

1. Combining Words to Make Sentences Warm-up PowerPoint

This resource is the perfect starting point for teaching clauses. Designed for year 1 pupils, this PowerPoint breaks down simple sentences into individual components so that children can see how to build their own independent clauses. They will be taught that a sentence needs to have a verb and a noun for it to be the main clause.

2. Main Clause and Subordinate Clause Worksheets

Now this resource is a step up from the previous one. This worksheet is for UKS2 pupils and focuses on their ability to construct sentences by filling in the subordinate clause with no prompts. There are a few more activities in this pack that will help children write complex sentences.

Verbs

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