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I’m preparing for my exam and in one of the practice questions i have to identify the main clause, subordinate clause/s and the subject,predicate and/or adverbials. the sentence is:

"The Mausoleum has an interesting place in Greek history because it was a building that was not dedicated to the gods".

i thought the main clause could be "The Mausoleum has an interesting place in Greek history"

with "because" being the subordinating conjunction.

but I'm really struggling to identify the subordinate clause/s. is there 1 or 2? what type of clause is it and what would the subject and predicate be?

thanks in advanced

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  • You've just changed the sentence! Originally, it was 'Today, people can still see some of the marble stones that were used to build the Mausoleum". Do you intend to change it again?
    – BillJ
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 8:25
  • I have 2 sentences that I'm struggling to analyse. I thought i would post both. Sorry for the confusion
    – Nicole
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 8:39
  • Homework questions may be OT.
    – Kris
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 9:05
  • It’s for university. We don’t get marked on it I just want to understand what the subordinate clause is? My course is all online so I don’t really have anyone to ask for advice.
    – Nicole
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 9:10
  • First find all the verbs and their subjects.
    – KarlG
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 9:17

1 Answer 1

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There are two subordinate clauses in this complex sentence: 1. Because... - a causal clause. This is the clause of the first level of subordination. 2. That... - a defining relative clause. This is the clause of the second level of subordination.

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  • I thought this as well, but I got confused because there is no subject in the 2nd subordinating clause
    – Nicole
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 11:09
  • It is 'that' which is the subject of the clause.
    – user307254
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 11:17
  • In modern grammar, "that" is not treated as a relative pronoun but as a subordinator, so it can't be the subject of the relative clause. Instead, the missing subject is represented by the '___' notation, called 'gap', as thus: "a building that ___ was not dedicated to the gods".
    – BillJ
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 12:35

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