Introduction to clauses:
Santa Claus is a beloved character who brings gifts to children on Christmas. But have you ever heard of the main clause or the subordinate clause? In this lesson, we’re going to learn all about main and subordinate clauses.
Explanation of clauses:
Let’s start with a simple sentence: I ate a sandwich for lunch because I was feeling hungry. Can you tell that this sentence has two parts? The two parts are: ‘I ate a sandwich for lunch’ and ‘because I was feeling hungry.’
The first part of the sentence, ‘I ate a sandwich for lunch,’ is called the main clause. The main clause is a group of words that contains a subject (‘I’) and a verb (‘ate’), and can stand on its own as a complete sentence. It expresses a complete thought and does not depend on any other clause for its meaning.
The second part of the sentence, ‘because I was feeling hungry,’ is called the subordinate clause, also known as a dependent clause. The subordinate clause is a group of words that contains a subject (‘I’) and a verb (‘feeling’), but cannot stand on its own as a complete sentence. Subordinate clauses are dependent on the main clause to give them context and meaning.
Let’s look at some more examples.
Example 1: I went to the store which is down the street from my house. The main clause is ‘I went to the store’ and the subordinate clause is ‘which is down the street from my house.’ The main clause expresses a complete thought, while the subordinate clause does not. When attached to the main clause, it tells us that the store is down the street from the speaker’s house and that they went there.
Example 2: The mailman, who was delivering the mail, waved at me. The main clause is ‘The mailman waved at me’ and the subordinate clause is ‘who was delivering the mail.’ The subordinate clause does not express a complete thought, but when attached to the main clause, it gives us more information about the mailman and what he was doing when he waved.
Conclusion of clauses:
In conclusion, main and subordinate clauses are important parts of sentence structure that help to convey complete thoughts and give additional information. Understanding the difference between main and subordinate clauses is crucial for improving your writing and communication skills.
2023-03-13
