In this short video, we'll be discussing noun clauses. So what is a noun clause? A noun
clause is a dependent clause, so in other words it's a clause that cannot stand
alone. It needs to be attached to a independent clause. Noun clauses take the
place of a noun in a sentence so basically we can put a noun clause
anywhere where we would find a noun, so a subject, object, or as an object of proposition. The
most common type of noun clause is a noun clause that's in object position. There's
three types of noun clauses. We have THAT or statement type, WH-word type, and if
or whether type. The first type of noun clause we're going to talk about is noun clauses
with THAT. So noun clauses with THAT follow verbs that show thinking and
mental activity. They can also follow verbs of reported speech. Here are
some examples of the types of verbs that are often followed by noun
clauses. So let's look at some examples. This first example, we have the sentence
'The student believes that the professor was telling the truth,' so we have 'the
student' is a subject and then we have this verb 'believes.' 'Believes' is one of the
verbs that show thinking or mental activity and then we follow 'believes' with
this noun clause. This noun clause is in the object position of the sentence, so we
have subject, verb, object
and the noun clause is 'that the professor was telling the truth.' so notice that in this
noun clause we started with THAT we have the subject 'professor' and then we have the verb 'was telling'
Here's another example, 'The professor stated that late homework is not allowed
so again we start with independent clause, 'The professor stated' and we have the
noun clause in the object position, 'that late homework is not allowed.'
Let's look at a couple more examples.
Notice that in all of these sentences we have an independent clause, for example,
'Many students believe' and then in the object we put in a noun clause so this
whole thing here is the object noun clause. Certain nouns can also be followed by noun
clauses. These are two nouns that are commonly followed by noun clauses: fact and
theory. So, for example 'It's a fact that exercising every day is good for the heart.' We have
the independent clause, 'It is a fact,' and then we follow 'fact' with a noun clause 'that
exercising every day is good for the heart,' so again notice that for this noun
clause we start with 'that' and we have a subject 'exercising' and then we have our verb 'is'. Here are a
few more examples. (You can pause it here and try to determine the subject and verbs)
We can also have adjectives that are followed with noun clauses.
Here's some of the adjectives that are followed by noun clauses,'well-known',
'clear' 'true' and 'important'. Here're some example sentences. We have 'It is well-known that learning a new language
has many benefits.' so again we have the subject, we have the verb, and then we have the adjective 'well-known'.
And then we follow the adjective with a noun clause 'that learning a new language
has many benefits' 'It is clear that students need to study more.' We have the subject 'It'
verb 'is', 'clear' is the adjective, and we have the noun clause 'that the students need to study more. And
lastly, 'It's important that people learn to cooperate.' We have 'It is important,' and then the noun clause
'that people learn to cooperate' and again you start the noun clause with 'that', you have the subject and
and then verb 'learn.'