Noun Clause

Many people are fairly comfortable with the idea of nouns, but they might not feel so confident when it comes to the idea of a noun clause. Noun clauses come in a variety of forms; and learning about each form is the best way to understand the concept of noun clauses.

Purpose of a Noun Clause
Noun clauses can be used in a number of ways, and they serve different purposes. First and foremost, please recognize that these clauses are dependent clauses. A dependent clause is one that cannot stand by itself. If a dependent clause is placed alone, it forms a fragment, not a sentence. An independent clause can act as a sentence by itself, but dependent clauses cannot.

Subject of a Verb

A noun clause can act as a subject of a verb, and we will break down what that means after a couple of examples. This clause is acting as the subject of a verb is present in:

• What Alicia said made her friends cry.
• What Megan wrote surprised her family.
• What the man did was not very polite.

When there's a verb in the sentence, you must find the subject. Therefore, in the first we can ask "What made?" and the answer is "What Alicia said." Therefore, "What Alicia said" is the subject of that verb. In the next case, we can ask "What surprised?" and the answer is "What Megan wrote." Do you now see how a noun clause can act as a subject of a verb?

Object of a Verb

In the same vein, noun clauses can also act as the object of a verb:

• She didn't know that the directions were wrong.
• He didn't realize that the stove was off.
• They now understand that you should not cheat on a test.

Once again, we can use the method of questioning to demonstrate how the noun clause is being used. What didn't she know? What didn't he realize? And what do they now understand? The answer in all three cases is the noun clause!

Subject Complement

Let's pick up the pace a little bit, and let's see if you can figure out how these noun clauses are actually answers to questions within the sentence.

• Carlie's problem was that she didn't do the wash.
• Harry's crowning achievement was his 4.0 GPA.
• Darla's television was a 60 inch screen.

Once again, do you see what questions these noun clauses answer and how they relate to the subject? What was Carlie's problem? What was Harry's crowning achievement? What was Darla's television? Without these clauses, the sentences would not be complete thoughts grammaticaly, nor would they sound complete at all.

Object of a Preposition

Noun clauses also act as objects of a preposition.

• Harry is not the provider of what Margie needs.
• Josephine is not resposible for what Alex decided to do.
• Allie is the owner of that blue car.

Once again, Harry is not the provider of what? Josephine is not responsible for what? Allie is the owner of what?

Adjective Complement

Last but not least, a noun clause can also act as an adjective complement.

• The group is happy that Meg returned home.
• The child is sad that his stomach hurts.
• The family is excited that they bought a new house.

One more time with feeling: Why is the group happy? Why is the child sad? Why is the family excited?

Selecting a Type of Noun Clause

Using noun clauses in everyday speech is a fairly common practice, as noun clauses add often crucial information to sentences. However, learning to differentiate between the various types can be difficult.
If you're in a position where you have to decide which form the noun clause is taking, consider the options carefully, and consult a grammar guide if you need additional assistance.

Relative clauses - non-defining relative clauses

Relative clauses add extra information to a sentence by defining a noun. They are usually divided into two types – defining relative clauses and non-defining relative clauses.

Non-defining relative clauses

Look at this sentence.

• My grandfather, who is 87, goes swimming every day.

‘who is 87’ is a non-defining relative clause. It adds extra information to the sentence. If we take the clause out of the sentence, the sentence still has the same meaning.

Look at some more examples.

• The film, which stars Tom Carter, is released on Friday.
• My eldest son, whose work takes him all over the world, is in Hong Kong at the moment.
• The car, which can reach speeds of over 300km/ph, costs over $500,000.

Non-defining relative clauses add extra information to sentences.

Defining or non-defining?

Remember that defining relative clauses are used to add important information. The sentence would have a different meaning without the defining relative clause.

• I’m going to wear the skirt that I bought in London. The defining relative clause tells us which skirt.
• The skirt, which is a lovely dark blue colour, only cost £10. The non-defining relative clause doesn’t tell us which skirt – it gives us more information about the skirt.

Non-defining relative clauses can use most relative pronouns (which, whose etc,) but they CAN’T use ‘that’ and the relative pronoun can never be omitted.

• The film, that stars Tom Carter, is released on Friday.

Non-defining relative clauses are more often used in written English than in spoken English. You can tell that a clause is non-defining because it is separated by commas at each end of the clause.

The difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses

A defining relative clause identifies or classifies a noun:

Do you know the guy who is talking to Will over there?
I wrote my essay on a photo which was taken by Robert Capa.

If we omit this type of clause, the sentence does not make sense or has a different meaning:

Do you know the guy? (which guy?)
I wrote my essay on a photo. (what kind of photo?)

A non-defining relative clause adds extra information about a noun which already has a clear reference:

The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da Vinci, who was also a prolific engineer and inventor.

If we leave out this type of clause, the sentence still makes sense:

The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. (we know who Leonardo da Vinci was)

Sometimes, the use of commas marks a difference in meaning:

The athletes who failed the drug test were disqualified. (defining)
The athletes, who failed the drug test, were disqualified. (non-defining)

The defining relative clause tells us that only those athletes who failed the drug test were disqualified. The sentence implies that there were other athletes who did not fail the drug test and that they were not disqualified.
The non-defining relative clause tells us that all the athletes (mentioned earlier in the context) failed the drug test and that all of them were disqualified.
related to this topic, check out our e-book The Grammaring Guide to English Grammar.

Noun Clause

Many people are fairly comfortable with the idea of nouns, but they might not feel so confident when it comes to the idea of a noun clause. Noun clauses come in a variety of forms; and learning about each form is the best way to understand the concept of noun clauses.

Purpose of a Noun Clause

Noun clauses can be used in a number of ways, and they serve different purposes. First and foremost, please recognize that these clauses are dependent clauses. A dependent clause is one that cannot stand by itself. If a dependent clause is placed alone, it forms a fragment, not a sentence. An independent clause can act as a sentence by itself, but dependent clauses cannot.

Subject of a Verb

A noun clause can act as a subject of a verb, and we will break down what that means after a couple of examples. This clause is acting as the subject of a verb is present in:

• What Alicia said made her friends cry.
• What Megan wrote surprised her family.
• What the man did was not very polite.

When there's a verb in the sentence, you must find the subject. Therefore, in the first we can ask "What made?" and the answer is "What Alicia said." Therefore, "What Alicia said" is the subject of that verb. In the next case, we can ask "What surprised?" and the answer is "What Megan wrote." Do you now see how a noun clause can act as a subject of a verb?

Object of a Verb

In the same vein, noun clauses can also act as the object of a verb:

• She didn't know that the directions were wrong.
• He didn't realize that the stove was off.
• They now understand that you should not cheat on a test.

Once again, we can use the method of questioning to demonstrate how the noun clause is being used. What didn't she know? What didn't he realize? And what do they now understand? The answer in all three cases is the noun clause!

Subject Complement

Let's pick up the pace a little bit, and let's see if you can figure out how these noun clauses are actually answers to questions within the sentence.

• Carlie's problem was that she didn't do the wash.
• Harry's crowning achievement was his 4.0 GPA.
• Darla's television was a 60 inch screen.

Once again, do you see what questions these noun clauses answer and how they relate to the subject? What was Carlie's problem? What was Harry's crowning achievement? What was Darla's television? Without these clauses, the sentences would not be complete thoughts grammaticaly, nor would they sound complete at all.

Object of a Preposition

Noun clauses also act as objects of a preposition.

• Harry is not the provider of what Margie needs.
• Josephine is not resposible for what Alex decided to do.
• Allie is the owner of that blue car.

Once again, Harry is not the provider of what? Josephine is not responsible for what? Allie is the owner of what?

Adjective Complement

Last but not least, a noun clause can also act as an adjective complement.

• The group is happy that Meg returned home.
• The child is sad that his stomach hurts.
• The family is excited that they bought a new house.

One more time with feeling: Why is the group happy? Why is the child sad? Why is the family excited?

Selecting a Type of Noun Clause

Using noun clauses in everyday speech is a fairly common practice, as noun clauses add often crucial information to sentences. However, learning to differentiate between the various types can be difficult.
If you're in a position where you have to decide which form the noun clause is taking, consider the options carefully, and consult a grammar guide if you need additional assistance.

Parts of a Sentence: The Noun Clause

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A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb. Some clauses are dependent: they can't stand alone and need an independent clause, or sentence, to support them.
These dependent clauses can be used in three ways: as adjectives, as adverbs and as nouns. This article focuses on noun clauses.

What is a noun clause?

A noun clause is a dependent clause that acts as a noun.

What words are signs of a noun clause?

Noun clauses most often begin with the subordinating conjunction that. Other words that may begin a noun clause are if, how, what, whatever, when, where, whether, which, who, whoever, whom and why.

What can a noun clause do in a sentence?

Since a noun clause acts as a noun, it can do anything that a noun can do. A noun clause can be a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, an object of a preposition, a subject complement, an object complement or an appositive.
Examples:

How do noun clauses differ from other dependent clauses?

Other dependent clauses act as adjectives and adverbs. We can remove them and still have a complete independent clause left, with a subject and verb and any necessary complements.
That is not the case with most noun clauses. A clause acting as an indirect object or an appositive may be removable, but other types of noun clauses are too essential to the sentence to be removed. Consider these examples:
If we remove these noun clauses, what is left will not make much sense:
That is because, in each example, the dependent noun clause forms a key part of the independent clause: it acts as the subject, the direct object, the object of a preposition. Without those key parts, the independent clauses do not express complete thoughts.
A sentence containing a noun clause is thus the one case in which an “independent” clause may actually need a dependent clause to be complete!

When are commas needed with a noun clause?

Noun clauses may need to be set off by one or two commas in the following situations.

Appositives

An appositive is a noun, pronoun, or nominal (a word or word group acting as a noun) that is placed next to a noun to explain it. For example, in the following sentence, the noun phrase the mayor of Riverton is an appositive explaining who John Allen is:
Noun clauses are nominals and can act as appositives. In that case, they may require commas if they are not essential to the meaning of the sentence:
Here, the words his original statement identify which statement is meant, so the noun clause provides information that is merely additional and not essential.
Compare this sentence to the one below:
In this case, the noun clause is essential for identifying which statement is meant and therefore takes no commas.

Unusual position

Other than appositives, noun clauses do not normally require commas. However, if the clause is in an unusual position, it may require a comma:

Clarity

As the above examples show, we do not normally use a comma for a noun clause acting as subject at the beginning of the sentence, because that is the usual position for a subject. However, a comma may sometimes be needed to prevent misreading:
In the above examples, we use a comma to separate the two identical verbs in order to avoid confusion.


Reported Statements
When do we use reported speech? Sometimes someone says a sentence, for example "I'm going to the cinema tonight". Later, maybe we want to tell someone else what the first person said.
Watch my reported speech video:
Here's how it works:
We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell'. (Click here for more about using 'say' and 'tell'.) If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence:

• Direct speech: “I like ice cream”.
• Reported speech: She says she likes ice cream.

We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the 'person' from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'.
But, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the reported speech:

• Direct speech: “I like ice cream”.
• Reported speech: She said she liked ice cream.

Tense	Direct Speech	Reported Speech
present simple	“I like ice cream”	She said (that) she liked ice cream.
present continuous	“I am living in London”	She said she was living in London.
past simple	“I bought a car”	She said she had bought a car OR She said she bought a car.
past continuous	“I was walking along the street”	She said she had been walking along the street.
present perfect	“I haven't seen Julie”	She said she hadn't seen Julie.
past perfect*	“I had taken English lessons before”	She said she had taken English lessons before.
will	“I'll see you later”	She said she would see me later.
would*	“I would help, but..”	She said she would help but...
can	“I can speak perfect English”	She said she could speak perfect English.
could*	“I could swim when I was four”	She said she could swim when she was four.
shall	“I shall come later”	She said she would come later.
should*	“I should call my mother”	She said she should call her mother
might*	"I might be late"	She said she might be late
must	"I must study at the weekend"	She said she must study at the weekend OR She said she had to study at the weekend

* doesn't change.
Occasionally, we don't need to change the present tense into the past if the information in direct speech is still true (but this is only for things which are general facts, and even then usually we like to change the tense):

• Direct speech: “The sky is blue”.
• Reported speech: She said that the sky is/was blue.

Click here for a mixed tense exercise about practise reported statements.
Click here for a list of all the reported speech exercises.
Reported Questions
So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative sentences. But how about questions?

• Direct speech: "Where do you live?"

How can we make the reported speech here?

In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone else, it isn't a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence. Confusing? Sorry, maybe this example will help:

• Direct speech: "Where do you live?"
• Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.

Do you see how I made it? The direct question is in the present simple tense. We make a present simple question with 'do' or 'does' so I need to take that away. Then I need to change the verb to the past simple.

Another example:

• Direct speech: "where is Julie?"
• Reported speech: She asked me where Julie was.

The direct question is the present simple of 'be'. We make the question form of the present simple of be by inverting (changing the position of)the subject and verb. So, we need to change them back before putting the verb into the past simple. Here are some more examples:

Direct Question	Reported Question
“Where is the Post Office, please?”	She asked me where the Post Office was.
“What are you doing?”	She asked me what I was doing.
“Who was that fantastic man?”	She asked me who that fantastic man had been.

So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have any question words to help us. Instead, we use 'if':

• Direct speech: "Do you like chocolate?"
• Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.

No problem? Here are a few more examples:

Direct Question	Reported Question
“Do you love me?”	He asked me if I loved him.
“Have you ever been to Mexico?”	She asked me if I had ever been to Mexico.
“Are you living here?”	She asked me if I was living here.

Click here to practise reported 'wh' questions.
Click here to practise reported 'yes / no' questions.

Reported Requests
There's more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? For example:

• Direct speech: "Close the window, please"
• Or: "Could you close the window please?"
• Or: "Would you mind closing the window please?"

All of these requests mean the same thing, so we don't need to report every word when we tell another person about it. We simply use 'ask me + to + infinitive':

• Reported speech: She asked me to close the window.

Here are a few more examples:

Direct Request	Reported Request
“Please help me”.	She asked me to help her.
“Please don't smoke”.	She asked me not to smoke.
“Could you bring my book tonight?”	She asked me to bring her book that night.
“Could you pass the milk, please?”	She asked me to pass the milk.
“Would you mind coming early tomorrow?”	She asked me to come early the next day.

To report a negative request, use 'not':

• Direct speech: "Please don't be late."
• Reported speech: She asked us not to be late.

Reported Orders
And finally, how about if someone doesn't ask so politely? We can call this an 'order' in English, when someone tells you very directly to do something. For example:

• Direct speech: "Sit down!"

In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way as a request. We just use 'tell' instead of 'ask':

• Reported speech: She told me to sit down.

Direct Order	Reported Order
“Go to bed!”	He told the child to go to bed.
“Don't worry!”	He told her not to worry.
“Be on time!”	He told me to be on time.
“Don't smoke!”	He told us not to smoke.

• Click here for an exercise to practise reported requests and orders.

Time Expressions with Reported Speech

Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time expressions too. We don't always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the direct speech and when we say the reported speech.

For example:

It's Monday. Julie says "I'm leaving today".

If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was leaving today".
If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving yesterday".
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving on Monday".
If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was leaving that day".

So, there's no easy conversion. You really have to think about when the direct speech was said.

Here's a table of some possible conversions:

now	then / at that time
today	yesterday / that day / Tuesday / the 27th of June
yesterday	the day before yesterday / the day before / Wednesday / the 5th of December
last night	the night before, Thursday night
last week	the week before / the previous week
tomorrow	today / the next day / the following day / Friday