Dependent clauses and how to punctuate them.
Aug 22nd, 2008 | By John Roach | Category: GrammarDependent clauses are one of the most exciting elements of English grammar. If fact, whenever an English class comes to the day when they are to be taught, the professor often allots time for students to lie down and catch their breath, lest they collapse at their desk from an adrenaline overdose.*
As with all clauses, dependent clauses contain a subject and a verb; unlike independent clauses, however, dependent clauses begin with some sort of marker word; this marker word depends on the role the clause serves.
Types of dependent clauses
- Adjective
- Adverb
- Noun
This is the house that we live in.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which was written by Douglas Adams, is the first book in a five-volume trilogy.
The clauses “that we live in” and “which was written by Douglas Adams” describe the nouns “house” and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” respectively.
If an adjective clause is essential to the meaning of the sentence, it is not set off by commas; if leaving the clause out does not change the meaning of the sentence, set it up with commas. In the examples above, “This is the house” is meaningless — “that we live in” is essential to the meaning; therefore, no commas should be used. The second example is clear without the clause, so we can cordon it off with commas to our heart’s content.
An adverb clause gives context to the verb — it most commonly explains why or when the action took place.
While I was eating, I spilled my drink on my pants.
Because my girlfriend had the flu, I went out with her sister.
Adverb clauses can be written in two places: either before the verb or after it. Never in both. If it is written before the verb, it takes a comma; if it were written after the verb, it would not.
I spilled my drink on my pants while I was eating.
I went with my girlfriend’s sister because my girlfriend had the flu.
Be careful with your pronouns. You shouldn’t go out with your girlfriend’s sister anyway, but you definitely don’t want to cheat with someone who’s that sick.
Finally, we come to noun clauses. They’re not so complicated; nouns are nouns, right?
She said she dumped me because I went out with her sister.
I told her that it wasn’t really cheating because they’re identical twins.
I managed to sneak in an adverb clause into that one, too. When you’re a grammar expert like I am, you’ll be able to do that sort of thing.
*This is a lie.
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This article was written by John Roach http://prowritingtips.com John is a writer and copy editor. You can follow him on twitter at @johnwroachiii. To see more posts click here |
