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Adependent clause, also known as asubordinate clause,subclause orembedded clause, is a certain type ofclause that juxtaposes anindependent clause within acomplex sentence. For instance, in the sentence "I know Bette is a dolphin", the clause "Bette is a dolphin" occurs as thecomplement of the verb "know" rather than as a freestandingsentence. Subtypes of dependent clauses includecontent clauses,relative clauses,adverbial clauses, and clauses that complement an independent clause in thesubjunctive mood.
A content clause, also known as a "noun clause", provides content implied or commented upon by its main clause. It can be asubject,predicate nominative,direct object,appositive,indirect object, or object of thepreposition. Some of the English words that introduce content clauses arethat, who (and formalwhom),whoever (and formalwhomever),whether, why, what, how, when, andwhere. Notice that some of these words also introduce relative and adverbial clauses. A clause is a content clause if a pronoun (he, she, it, orthey) could be substituted for it.
Examples:
In English, in some instances thesubordinatorthat can be omitted.
Example 1:
Example 2:
InIndo-European languages, a relative clause, also called an adjectival clause or an adjective clause, meets three requirements:
The adjective clause in English will follow one of these patterns:
For a discussion of adjective clauses in languages other than English, seeRelative clause#Examples.
The punctuation of an adjective clause depends on whether it is essential (restrictive) or nonessential (nonrestrictive) and uses commas accordingly. Essential clauses are not set off with commas; nonessential clauses are. An adjective clause is essential if the information it contains is necessary to the meaning of the sentence:
The word "vegetables" is non-specific. Accordingly, for the reader to know which are being mentioned, one must have the information provided in the adjective clause (in italics). Because it restricts the meaning of "vegetable", the adjective clause is called a restrictive clause. It is essential to the meaning of the main clause and uses no commas (and so does not experience a pause when spoken).
However, if the additional information does not help to identify more narrowly the identity of the noun antecedent but rather simply provides further information about it, the adjective clause is nonrestrictive and so requires commas (or a spoken pause) to separate it from the rest of the sentence:
Depending on context, a particular noun could be modified by either a restrictive or nonrestrictive adjective clause. For example, while "broccoli" is modified nonrestrictively in the preceding sentence, it is modified restrictively in the following.
"He saw Marywhen he was in New York" and "They studied hardbecause they had a test" both contain adverbial clauses (in italics). Adverbial clauses expresswhen, why, where, opposition, andconditions, and, as with all dependent clauses, they cannot stand alone. For example,When he was in New York is not a complete sentence; it needs to be completed by an independent clause, as in:
or equivalently
Dependent clauses may beheaded by aninfinitive,gerund, or othernon-finite verb form, which in linguistics is calledderanked. For instance:
In these cases, the subject of the dependent clause may take a non-nominative form. An example is:
Acomplex sentence contains anindependent clause and at least one dependent clause. A sentence with two or more independent clauses plus (one or more) dependent clauses is referred to as acompound-complex sentence. (Every clause contains a subject and predicate.) Here are some English examples:
My sister criedbecause she scraped her knee. (complex sentence)
When they told me(that) I won the contest, I cried, but I didn't faint. (compound-complex sentence)
This sentence contains two dependent clauses: "When they told me", and "(that) I won the contest", the latter which serves as the object of the verb "told". The connecting word "that", if not explicitly included, is understood to implicitly precede "I won" and in either case functions as a subordinating conjunction. This sentence also includes two independent clauses, "I cried" and "I didn't faint", connected by the coordinating conjunction "but". The first dependent clause, together with its object (the second dependent clause), adverbially modifies the verbs of both main clauses.
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