English Grammar- Noun clauses.

Definition

A clause is a group of words which forms part of a sentence and contains a subject and a predicate. A clause can be classified into principal clause and subordinate clause. A principal clause is also called a main clause/an independent clause while subordinate clause is also known as a dependent clause.

Principal/Main/Independent clause

A principal clause is a clause which makes complete sense and can stand alone. For example

I saw him.

I did my best but could not make it to the final.

Sentence 1 above is a simple sentence while sentence 2 above is a compound sentence. Hence, a compound sentence contains two independent clauses. (each of the two clauses can stand on its own, hence, we can break the sentence like this: I did my best. I could not make it to the finals). The important thing to note here is that that part of a sentence which can stand alone is an independent clause.

Subordinate/Dependent clause

A clause which depends on the main clause for its meaning is called a subordinate or dependent clause.

Example

When I was going to the stream

That the earth is round

Unless you show me your identity

The salient point here that- to identify a subordinate clause, look out for that part of the sentence that cannot stand on its own.(It cannot make a complete sense when separated from the main clause).

Note: Subordinate clauses can be turned into a meaningful sentence. eg. I saw him when I was going to the ream.

Kinds of subordinate clauses

There are three kinds of subordinate clauses, namely:

Noun clause

Adjective clause

Adverb clause

These have been touched briefly in one of my posts about comprehension but we shall be treating them fully step by step, considering the importance of  WAEC English. For the sake of simplicity, this post will focus on noun clauses.

Noun clause: A noun clause is a group of words which contain a subject and a predicate of its own and does the work of a noun. In very many cases, a noun clause would answer the question “what?” and sometimes “who?”

Example

I know that he is a driver in the bank.

I know how to apply for a bank loan.

She said that she was not interested in the case.

That she abandoned her children is known to everybody.

She showed us what her mother bought for her.

That man who came here yesterday is our teacher.

Let us now break down the above sentences ; the break-down will help us identify the noun clauses easily. Having known that a noun clause answers the question “what?”,  and in some cases “who?”, let’s begin with sentence 1. In sentence 1, the speaker said “I know”. You will likely ask, “what do you know?”  The answer will be, “that he is a driver in the bank.” We can see that the underlined expression has answered the question “what?”

In sentence 2 we read, “I know”  Now, ask the speaker, “what do you know?” His answer would be, “how to apply for a bank loan.” Apply the same sense to sentence 3 and 5. Let’s take sentence 4. Now, imagine that the speaker is talking with you and he says, “it is known to every body.” what question would you ask him? No doubt you would ask, “what is known to every body?” Then he would answer, “that she abandoned her children.” Here again, the underlined expression has answered the question “what?”. Therefore, the underlined expressions are noun clauses.  Sentence 6 say “He is our teacher.” you are likely to ask, Who is you teacher and the answer will be “the man who came here yesterday.” Here, the noun clause answers the question “who?”. Having known the grammatical name of the underlined expressions, let’s discuss their functions.

Functions of a noun clause

A noun clause can function as:
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