Grammar 19

 

Main Clause or Adverb Clause?

Before we study noun clauses, I'd like to introduce you to a new kind of question:

Instructions:

Identify the underlined clause.

  1. The teacher asked for his homework after she noticed it was missing.
main (independent) clause
subordinate adverb clause
subordinate noun clause
subordinate adjective clause

Answer = A

Hopefully, that wasn't too hard. "The teacher asked for his homework" is the main clause, because it can stand alone. It's a complete sentence, all by itself.

In contrast, "After she noticed it was missing" is not a complete sentence. It cannot live by itself. It is dependent on the main clause, and that's why it's a dependent clause (which is just another way of saying that it's a subordinate clause).

Now, let's try another:

Instructions:

Identify the underlined clause.

  1. Because my coffee was too cold, I heated it in the microwave.
main (independent) clause
subordinate adverb clause
subordinate noun clause
subordinate adjective clause

Answer = B

In this case, the underlined clause cannot stand alone. ("Because my coffee was too cold" is not a complete sentence). Therefore, it must be a subordinate clause.

But now comes the tricky part: What kind of subordinate clause is it?

Well, let me make it easy for you.

Thus far, we have only studied adverb clauses, and so the answer must be "adverb clause".

Later, after we have studied those other two choices, you'll have to be able to differentiate between them.

But not yet. For right now, the answer will always be A or B.

main (independent) clause

subordinate adverb clause

subordinate noun clause

subordinate adjective clause

Intructions for the Quiz

Identify the underlined clause.

Quiz