Clauses

A clause is the basic unit of grammar. A clause must contain a verb. Typically a clause is made up of a subject, a verb phrase and, sometimes, a complement:

The sale starts at 9 am.

I didn’t sleep well last night.

Are you listening to the radio?

A sentence is a unit of grammar. It must contain at least one main clause. It can contain more than one clause. In writing, a sentence typically begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop:

She spoke to me. (one clause)

I looked at her and she smiled at me. (two main clauses connected by and)

An adjective clause is a type of dependent clause that works to describe a noun in a sentence. It functions as an adjective even though it is made up of a group of words instead of just one word. In the case of an adjective clause, all the words work together to modify the noun or pronoun.

An adverbial clause is a group of words that plays the role of an adverb. (Like all clauses, an adverbial clause contains a subject and a verb.)

The clause can modify or describe verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. In general, adverb clauses add information that elaborates on when, where, why, how, how much or under what condition the action in the sentence takes place.

An adverbial clause  A clause must contain a subject and a verb to be complete. 

If you're uncertain whether a group of words is an adverb clause, check for a subject and a verb. If it has both of these parts of a sentence, and answers the question how, why, when or where, it's an adverb clause.

A noun clause is a clause that plays the role of a noun.

What Alicia said made her friends cry.

What Megan wrote surprised her family.

How the boy behaved was not very polite.

The pharmacist checked that the prescription was correct.

He didn't know why the stove wasn't working.

They now understand that you should not cheat on a test.

Carlie's problem was that she didn't practice enough.

Harry's crowning achievement at school was when he became class president.

Darla's excuse for being late was that she forgot to set her alarm.