The understanding of the English clause structure, just like the English Phrasal structure, is very important in gaining mastery of the English language. In the grammatical rank scale, the clause is the linguistic class that comes below the sentence and just above the phrase or group. What is a clause? This is a good question to ask at this point. Let us see the description of the English clause…

What is a Clause?
A clause is a group of words that includes a subject and a verb (it has a subject and a predicate) and forms a simple sentence or part of the non-simple sentence. A clause is a major unit of grammar and we define it by the elements it could contain: the subject, predicator, complement and the adjunct. As the finite verb is the most central to a clause, it is necessary to identify a clause by its main verb.

Types of Clauses
In broad categorisations, there are two types of clauses. These include the main clause and the subordinate clause. Let us briefly consider these two broad types…

The Main Clause: A Definition
A clause can stand alone as a complete thought or sentence. We call this type of clause Independent, Main or Alpha clause. This clause does not depend on another clause to fully express itself. Examples of the main clause include:

I will be there.
I came, I saw, I conquered.
We have arrived.
There is no smoke without fire.
He got home, slept and left for the library.
Who has read the book?
Get out now!
What a pleasant surprise this is!
She will travel to Lagos and board a flight to London.
I saw the book but I could not buy it.
A sentence can contain more than one clause which can all be main clauses. In the instance of more than one main clause in a sentence, the clause is usually joined together by a coordinating conjunction. Such sentences could also be a simple sentence, compound sentence or a multiple sentence. (See Types of Sentences According to Structure). The main clause does not have any further subdivision unlike its other type, the subordinate clause.

What is a Subordinate Clause?
The subordinate clause is a type that does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone in a sentence as a separate grammatical entity, since its meaning depends on the meaning of the main clause. A subordinate clause gives additional information to the main clause. Some types of linguistic items we generally refer to as subordinators or subordinating conjunctions introduce the subordinate clause in a sentence (see subordination and coordination). Sometimes, the words, on their own, could also be adverbs. These subordinators include: when, unless, after, before, despite, while, that, whom, whose, who, which, if, though, although, because, etc. In describing the subordinate clause, which cannot stand on its own, we also refer to it as the dependent or Beta clause. Let us see some examples of the subordinate clause in sentences:

When I heard the news I was disturbed.
If I come tomorrow I will buy the book.
While waiting for the bus he met an old friend.
Despite playing very well the team lost the game.
The girl whose bicycle got damaged has bought a new one.
Unless we pray, nothing will happen.
The family whom I love as mine has relocated
After eating a heavy lunch the boys slept off.
The car which was stolen has been found.
She could not attend the event because her flight was cancelled.

Classification of the Subordinate or Dependent Clause

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