Questions tagged [subordinate-clauses]
a clause that forms part of a main clause, and is dependent on that clause
294 questions
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Is it grammatical to imply words from a parenthetical subordinate clause?
I stumbled over this sentence in the Guardian:
Dali’s case, while unique in its security failures, is not when it comes to generalized bad airline travel behaviour.
The meaning of the sentence is ...
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What is the difference between relative and content clause?
I asked ChatGPT about the role of the second ‘that’ in this passage. It answered that the word ‘that’ basically functions as a content clause. I wonder if the answer given by ChatGPT is correct. If so,...
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How much may be omitted in cases of VP ellipsis involving multiply-embedded clauses?
Dear native English speakers of this beautiful forum
I would like you to entertain the meaning of the sentence below, which has the rather simple form Mary suspected that the fingerprints had in fact ...
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Independent Clause Within Dependent Clause? (CMOS)
Just wondering what exactly Chicago style would say about adding a comma after "and" in this sentence:
They came to the conclusion Susie cheated, as she hadn't studied for the test and the ...
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Why is "for" preceded by a comma when it is used in the same way as "because"?
It seems that when "for" is used essentially as a subordinating conjunction even though it's supposedly a coordinating conjunction (correct me if I'm wrong on that), it's preceded by a comma ...
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Can We Analyse a Verbless Clause as a Direct Object?
I was recently reading George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood, and I came upon this sentence:
The coming of the new year found Maegor still without a son, not even a bastard who might be legitimized.
...
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I’m confused by how the term “syntactic marker” is used in CGEL
I am confused about the term syntactic marker as
used in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL),
by Huddleston and Pullum.
They say that to, for, that, but, and, nor, either,
neither etc....
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'I know what is freedom / freedom is'. <-- Word order in WH-questions
My understanding is that in a wh- subordinate clause, we must use statement word order (subject then verb) rather than question word order (verb then subject):
Correct: I know what freedom is.
Wrong:...
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Comma with Em-dash after Subordinate Clause [duplicate]
Consider the sentence:
When rebounding becomes important -- as is the case when playing the
Lakers -- we need to have John in the game.
Is there a need for a comma after "important" to ...
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future perfect or present perfect in a relative clause qualifying a noun contained in a time clause?
In the screenplay Harold and Maude, written by American author Colin Higgins, Harold stages a number of pretended suicides in an attempt to get strong emotional responses from his mother.
At a ...
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'I think IT unlikely that our team can win'. <--Is IT the object?
We think it unlikely that our inexperienced team can win a single > game this season.
Is "it" the direct object? If it is, what is the function of the noun clause "that our ...
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How Relative Pronouns Work [closed]
A relative pronoun is called "both a conjunction and a pronoun". There are other definitions, but the horribly superficial ones like "connects two sentences" are enough.
Why doesn'...
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Are the pronoun and verb needed in this sentence to prevent ambiguity of the antecedent?
We have a sentence like this:
Transients are individuals just passing through, not contributing to
the local population and its demographic rates, and they
are thus very unlikely to be recaptured.
...
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Does the dependent clause refer to the intended antecedent in this sentence?
The question hung in the room we were in, trembling in the cold.
Is the antecedent (in the broader sense) of the dependent clause 'we' or 'the question' here? How would you improve the sentence, ...
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Syntax of "What's going on at work these days that you're always on the phone?"
The syntax below is grammatical in colloquial American English and I'm wondering how the sentence is analyzed grammatically.
What's going on at work these days that you're always on the phone?
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When we say 'The probability that a red ball is picked is 0.5', what type of subordinate clause is being used?
We usually say "What is the probability that XXX...?" or "The probability that XXX is 0.5". One example would be in this sentence:
The probability that a red ball is picked is 0.5....
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We know how expensive we are
We know how expensive we are.
I cannot for the life of me decide if this is supposed to be interpreted as a complement clause or an embedded question or what.
My thought process so far is that it ...
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I need help with independent clauses
I got a bit confused about independent clauses,so I decided to ask ChatGpt, which has given me three different answers for the same sentence I think he is getting too old, suffering from Alzheimer's ...
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Is it a noun clause or phrase when the nominal entity is modified by a determiner?
From my textbook, A noun phrase is headed by a noun. Modifiers include articles, adjectives and demonstratives. Qualifiers include prepositional phrases and relative/adjectival clauses.
Given the ...
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Should there be a comma after the word "and" in this sentence with a subordinate and indendant clause after the word "and"?
I believe I've got the proper comma placements for these two sentences:
"The ball fell to the ground, and he caught it after it bounced."
"After it bounced, he caught it."
...
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Types of Clause
I'm getting perplexed searching "how many types of clause ....?" Because different websites are giving different answers.
I am thinking about taking it as, may be there are two types: ...
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Word order in embedded clause: "had little conception of... how supine was the Security Council"
I find the word order of this sentence interesting:
You will all know the outlines of this disaster, but I suggest that many people, including me before I went down this road, had really little ...
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In which clause does 'How' of "How do you think I feel" belong?
(1) How do you think I feel?
Semantically, (1) asks the listener's opinion about how the speaker feels. So it's syntactically natural that the verb think has as its complement a subordinate clause I ...
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What's the nature of the clause following "It's time"?
This must have come up before, but somehow I couldn't find any relevant post. Nor could I find any reference.
(1) It's time [you went to bed].
(2) It's time [(for you) to go to bed].
What's the ...
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Why are anywhere, everywhere, somewhere and nowhere determiners?
The post was edited. The present question was a tangent to the original question, so please excuse the windy logic.
In The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Huddleston and Pullum (2002) ...
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What tense should be used for the verb "film"? Why? [closed]
I was presented with this question on a test paper:
_______(film) in various parts of China, Unexplored Land presents the great diversity of China's ecosystem and throws fresh light on the concept of ...
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Which is the main clause and which the subclause in "as ... so ..." sentences?
In
As their wares moved eastwards along their trade routes, so did their culture.
Is the main clause:
so did their culture
as their wares moved eastwards along their trade routes
their wares moved ...
user163011
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Preferred conjunction for integrated clause (e.g. "and one that" versus "and one which")
Consider the following two sentences:
Today I ate a very tasty lunch, and one that was also quite healthy.
Today I ate a very tasty lunch, and one which was also quite healthy.
The subordinate ...
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to-infinitival subordinate clause [closed]
saw a sentence in the class's slide:
"Missy began to think when will he arrive."
I think "to think when will he arrive" and "when will he arrive" are two subordinate ...
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Grammatical Structure of Complex Sentence
The Sentence in Question
The legal “theories” of democracy that evolved in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were precisely intended to provide such definitions as would link certain actual or ...
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for/and/so: Are all three of those conjunctions equally acceptable in this situation?
I’m trying to connect two different clauses, each with its own subject and tensed verb, but I don’t know when to use one conjunction instead of another to do so. To summarize, I know that:
And = ...
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Is this an adjective phrase or an adverbial phrase?
“The grocery store where I always shop went out of business.”
This source - https://www.masterclass.com/articles/subordinate-clause-explained - identifies "where I always shop" as an example ...
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A semicolon or something else?
In Forrest Gump, Forrest says: "I couldn't tell where heaven stopped, and the earth began; it was so beautiful.”
What is the grammar after 'began'? Does a comma or semi-colon indicate a break ...
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When can an embedded interrogative clause exhibit Subject-Auxiliary Inversion? [duplicate]
I found in a comic book an interesting example of an embedded interrogative that had Subject-Auxiliary Inversion (SAI): I'm not too sure what exactly is it that you're asking. Is this Standard English ...
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Practicing sentence structure exercises. Did I handle the verbal phrase correctly? [closed]
I'm a writer who was never really taught all that soundly the formal aspects of parts of speech. Basic public school education. Was an English major, but we focused on the act of writing moreso than ...
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A main clause that doesn't follow from a subordinate clause [closed]
Because it's raining outside, I'm wearing orange socks today.
What is the term for this kind of sentence? Closest I can find is non sequitur?
Furthermore, do the below concepts have names?
A ...
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Present subordinate clause using "when" followed by a main clause in the past
Recently, I've listened to this version (on YouTube) of Led Zeppelin's song When the Levee Breaks. In this part of the song this guy sings "when the levee breaks, I had no place to stay", ...
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it is not inappropriate that risks be taken
Many outdoor experiences involve risk but that does not mean it is inappropriate that risks be taken, the report says.
(Source: Stuff, a New Zealand news media website)
I'm curious about the use of ...
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Wh- Clauses (Types?)
Is it a certain type of wh- clause that ends in a verb?
I know how tall he is.
This shows what a disaster it was.
That has this order of Pred-S-Cop?
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Is a main clause containing subordination canonical or non-canonical?
According to Huddleston and Pullum's A Student's Introduction to English Grammar, canonical clauses are:
those which are syntactically the most basic or elementary.
They mark subordinate clauses, ...
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What is the correct structure to use in a sentence containing 'once' as the subordinate conjunction? [closed]
In a sentence containing a conjunction, what are the correct verb forms to be used in the two clauses? For example:
I would also suggest that once all these items are established, they must be added ...
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'They told me that I will/would not be employed from Monday.' Which is correct?
Consider the case where I am talking (about my being dismissed) on the previous Thursday. My work will stop at a time still in the future and it appears that 'will' can be used. But by a rule I have ...
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Verb placement in dependent clause
Is this good grammar?
I think we all deserve to know what actually happened and what are our chances of getting our funds back.
My inner grammarian says that "are" should follow the ...
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Is the usage of ‘that’ in “I miss the day that I was trouble-free” ok, or must it use ‘when’?
In this sentence:
I miss the days that I was trouble-free.
I know it would be correct if that were replaced by when, but would that also be correct here?
Also, I have this faint feeling that there ...
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Proper formulation of "contribute to" in subordinate sentence
I am writing a text about our project (say Project A), and I want to say that something which I am talking about (the three dots below), was motivated by requirements of project X, which I didn't talk ...
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Subordinate clauses headed by "With"
There are some subordinate clauses headed by with. For example:
A company can adopt a standardized approach or an internal models
approach, with the former generally leading to much higher capital
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What is the reason for skipping the preposition "on"? [duplicate]
In Goggle Ngram Viewer I found these sentences:
How are you enabled to say it was Monday that you saw him?
It was Monday that I was sworn as a witness.
It was on Monday that he called at my house.
...
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Commas with "then"
I can't figure out when I should/shouldn't put a comma before "then"
Pro Writing Aid says that "then" has started to replace "and then."
I went to bed, [and] then I ...
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Need help parsing "Everything I moved here to get away from"
I was just watching Homeland and the main character, Carrie, referred to her old life as "everything [she] moved here to get away from". I understood what she meant but had to pause the ...
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What is an example of "where" in an adverb clause?
All the sentences I can think of are anything but an adverb clause. For example:
"Where I'm going is none of your business." (A noun clause as the subject)
"No one knows where he is.&...
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