For example, if you say “I don’t know where the concert is,” the first part of the sentence, “I don’t know,” can stand on its own as an independent clause. The second part, “where the concert is,” is incomplete, meaning it’s the sentence’s dependent clause. If you aren’t sure whether a clause is independent or dependent, say it by itself and see if it makes sense as a complete thought. If you were to say “where the concert is,” you’d see that this fragment doesn’t complete a thought or answer/ask a complete question. Not all sentences have a dependent clause. Simple sentences like “I went to school” only have an independent clause. Compound sentences have 2 independent clauses, like “I went to school and then I went to camp. ” If there is no dependent clause, then there is no noun clause in the sentence. Complex sentences, which have 1 independent clause and at least 1 dependent clause, can contain noun clauses. [2] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
A list of pronouns that could indicate a noun clause are who, whom, whomever, or whose. Subordinating conjunctions include which, what, where, when, why, whether, that, or how. These words usually introduce a noun clause. If you ask “Do you know where the concert is?” you see that “where” indicates the start of the noun clause. It addresses the question from the independent clause, which is “Do you know?” The question word doesn’t have to sit between the 2 clauses. In the sentence “Where I went for vacation was very boring,” the noun clause “where” is actually at the beginning of the sentence.
The sentence may be “The great thing about my kids is they all get along. ” You might not initially see how to break this sentence down, but try adding “that” and making the sentence “The great thing about my kids is that they all get along. ” Then it’s clear that the noun clause is “that they all get along. "
If you have trouble finding the noun clause, try circling the question words in the sentence. This can get you on the right path to finding the noun clause. Also look for the sentence verbs to get you started. A noun clause always contains a verb, so circling the verbs can also show you where the noun clause is. But be careful, because not all clauses with verbs are noun clauses. This just helps narrow the choices down.
In the sentence “I don’t know where the concert is,” the independent clause is “I don’t know. ” The question is “what don’t I know?” The noun clause answers this by telling you that “I don’t know where the concert is. " Another example is “Where I went on vacation was very boring. ” The question is what was boring? “Where I went on vacation was very boring,” so this first part is the noun clause. A noun clause with an implied “that” is a bit trickier, but you can do the same test. In the example “The great thing about my kids is they all get along,” that noun clause is “(that) they all get along. " This clause answers the sentence’s question, which is “What is the great thing about my kids?” Not all sentences that use question words contain noun clauses. For example, “Where can I get a pack of gum?” is a question that stands on its own and doesn’t contain a noun clause.
For instance, if the sentence is “Where I went for vacation was very boring,” try replacing “Where I went for vacation” with “Disney World. ” If you said “Disney World was very boring,” the sentence makes perfect sense. You could also do this with a person’s name. For example, if the sentence is “Whoever is confused can ask me for help,” the noun clause is “Whoever is confused. " You could make the sentence “Janet can ask me for help” and it still works. Remember that this isn’t a universal rule that will always work, so don’t rely on it entirely to find noun clauses. For example, if the sentence asks “Do you know what time we are leaving?” the noun clause is “what time we are leaving?” You can’t easily substitute a noun here that makes sense.
For example, the sentence could be “What the English teacher said really confused us. ” The noun clause is “What the English teacher said,” and the next verb is “confused. ” This makes the noun clause in this sentence a subject-noun clause. If you’re stuck with the previous example, ask yourself “What confused us?” The answer is “What the English teacher said,” meaning this phrase is the subject of that verb.
Say the sentence is “Do you know what you want for dinner?” The subject of the sentence is “you” and the verb is “know. ” “What you want for dinner” receives the action, so this noun clause is a direct object. The way to check for a direct object is asking what the verb in the sentence does. In this example, you could ask “know what?” This shows you that “what you want for dinner” is receiving the action. In another example, the sentence might be “I went to the store for milk and cookies. " If you ask “went where?” you’d see that the direct object is “the store. "
If the sentence is “Give whoever answers the door the package,” then you can see that the noun clause is “whoever answers the door. ” The verb is “give” and the direct object is “the package,” so the indirect object is the noun clause. The direct object isn’t always an item. For example, in the sentence “I gave my sister another chance,” the direct object is “another chance” and the indirect object is “my sister. " Not all sentences have an indirect object, so if you can’t find it, then this sentence may not have one.
The sentence may be “I can’t forgive Mike because of what he said. ” The phrase “because of” is a preposition, so the noun clause “what he said” serves as the object of the preposition in this sentence. Common prepositions are about, of, because of, except, but, by, for, from, in, to, toward, and with. Keep an eye out for these words before the noun clause to indicate an object of the preposition. [13] X Research source Sentences can have multiple objects of the preposition, so don’t stop looking after you only find one. In the sentence, “I’m unhappy because of where I work, but where I live is nice,” the noun phrases “where I work” and “where I live” are both objects of the preposition.
For example, in the sentence “I’m happy that you’re going to the show,” “I’m happy” can stand on its own as an independent thought. However, “that you’re going to the show” adds some more information, so it serves as a sentence complement.
