ADJECTIVE CLAUSE, ADVERB CLAUSE VS NOUN CLAUSE

Adjective Clause
An adjective clause is also called a relative clause or an adjectival clause. See my blog: http://ayatullahblog.weblog.esaunggul.ac.id/2013/05/13/relative-clause-3/ A clause is a group of words that have a subject and predicate. There are two kinds of clauses: independent and dependent. Independent clauses are sentences because they express a complete thought. Examples are: “The dog ran away.” and “Get the door.” In the second one, the subject is implied. To explain the function of an adjective clause, we will look at dependent clauses.
Dependent Clauses
Dependent clauses have the subject and predicate but can not stand alone. They depend on another clause to have meaning. Examples are: “When you finish your work” and “unless I get more money.” With each of these, you want to ask “What?” because the thought was not finished. Dependent clauses are also called subordinate clauses and they start with a subordinate conjunction. This is the word that links the dependent clause to the rest of the sentence.
Examples of subordinate conjunctions are: how, where, when, why, unless, although, after, as far as, as if, because, before, once, whether, while, now that, until, since, and unless.
The three types of dependent clauses are:

• Adjectival (or adjective)
• Adverbial (or adverb) – Adverbial clauses function as an adverb and answer the questions: when, where, why, how, and how much. Examples include: “Now that it rained a lot, the grass turned green.” and “I am much olderthan my brother.”
• Nominal – Nominal clauses function as a noun and can be the subject, an object, an appositive, or a complement. Sometimes nominal clauses start with an interrogative like: who, what, when, where, how, who, which, or why. Examples of nominal clauses are: “They always fought overwho should pay the bill” and “Whoever did thisis in big trouble.”

1.      Adjective Clauses

Adjective clauses modify nouns or pronouns. An adjective clause nearly always appears immediately following the noun or pronoun.
To test for adjective clauses there are a couple of questions that you can ask. Which one? What kind? Most adjective clauses begin with “who,” “whom,” “which,” or “that.” Sometimes the word may be understood. The words “that” or “who,” for example, might not specifically be in the sentence, but they could be implied. To determine the subject of a clause ask “who?” or “what?” and then insert the verb.
Example:

• The book that is on the floor should be returned to the library.

Occasionally, an adjective clause is introduced by a relative adverb, usually “when,” “where,” or “why.”
Example:

• Home is the place where you relax.

2.      Adverb Clauses

Adverb clauses usually modify verbs, in which case they may appear anywhere in a sentence. They tell why, where, under what conditions, or to what degree the action occurred or situation existed. Unlike adjective clauses, they are frequently movable within the sentence.
Example:

• When the timer rings, we know the cake is done. OR
• We know the cake is done when the timer rings.

Adverb clauses always begin with a subordinating conjunction. Subordinating conjunctions introduce clauses and express their relation to the rest of the sentence.

3.      Noun Clauses

Why Noun Clause is different to Adjective and Adverb Clause because Noun clauses are not modifiers, so they are not subordinators like adjectives and adverbs, and they cannot stand alone. They must function within another sentence pattern, always as nouns. A noun clause functions as a subject, subject complement, direct object, or object of a preposition.
A noun clause usually begins with a relative pronoun like “that,” “which,” “who,” “whoever,” “whomever,” “whose,” “what,” and “whatsoever.” It can also begin with the subordinating conjunctions “how,” “when,” “where,” “whether,” and “why.”
Example:

• Whoever wins the game will play in the tournament. 

See: Noun Clause

• The Toronto fans hope that the Blue Jays will win again.

Tweet

Subscribe to receive free email updates: