Hey.
Hey, what’s up?
We learn topics like relative clauses and conditional clauses, …
Sure, and sometimes at advanced levels we talk about other types of clauses,
like concession clauses, for instance.
Yeah, but I don’t really get what a clause is.
I see.
Well, in some of our other videos,
we say that a clause is a group of words that could be a sentence on its own.
But it doesn’t have to be on it’s own, as sentences can have more than one clause.
Okay…
But that’s our quick way of explaining it, and there’s a lot more you should know.
Why don’t I explain clauses more in depth, tell you why they’re important,
and tell you all the things you can do with clauses.
Yeah, that sounds good.
Here we go.
We’ll start with two important types of words.
One type is an action or indicates a state.
You mean a verb?
That’s exactly what I mean!
The other important type of word is who or what does the action or has the state.
A noun?
Yeah, but what kind of noun?
A subject.
Right.
If you have a subject and a verb that go together, then you have a clause.
Just a subject and a verb?
And they have to agree with one another.
For example, you cannot say “Susan cry,” or “They am travelling.”
Right.
But that’s all a clause is?
Well, that’s the foundation of a clause, and the most basic a clause can get,
but usually clauses have more than just that.
Think of a hamburger.
I always do.
What are the ingredients to the most basic hamburger you can have?
Well, you gotta have a patty, and you gotta have a bun.
Alright.
What if I had a bun, but no patty?
Then it’s not a hamburger.
What if you had a patty, but no bun?
I mean, I’d still eat it, but it’s not a hamburger.
So, in order for it to be a hamburger, you need the patty and the bun together.
Right.
Okay.
Is that all you usually have with a burger?
No, I always get cheese and tomatoes and pickles with some ketchup and mustard.
I’ll get onions and lettuce sometimes.
Maybe even some bacon if I’m feeling real fancy.
Okay.
So, you can have any combination of those things?
Totally, there are lots of ways you can have a burger.
But pickles and ketchup and cheese and whatever else aren’t essential to burgers, are they?
Well, you don’t need them to make a burger, but you need them to make a good burger.
Alright.
It’s the same with clauses.
You need a minimum of a subject and a verb paired together,
but most good clauses have a more than just that.
Some have direct objects or indirect objects or both.
You can include adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, and more.
Alright. Sweet!
Not only that, but you could even have multiple nouns as the subject,
or you could have multiple verbs.
*gasp*
You mean like a double cheeseburger?
or a triple cheeseburger!?
Sure, as long as the whole subject goes with all the verbs, you can do that.
Let’s look at some examples.
Okay.
A clause can be short and simple, like “The beaver tells stories.”
Okay, we’ve got a subject and a verb.
And a direct object.
If we want to, we could add more words, like
adverbs, adjectives, indirect objects, and prepositional phrases.
But it’s still just one clause, just a longer one?
Yeah, in fact, the number of words included is irrelevant.
We can have as many words and phrases as we want,
so long as they all connect back either to the subject or to the verb.
Got it.
What about that double cheeseburger?
You mean a sentence with two verbs?
How about this one?
“Lucy and Edmund play guitar and sing beautifully.”
In this case, presumably, both Lucy and Edmund play guitar, and both people sing beautifully.
It all ties together in one clause.
Cool.
Ooh, what if only Lucy plays guitar, and only Edmund sings beautifully?
Yeah, you could say that instead.
But in that case, you have two separate pairs of a subject with a verb.
But a subject-verb pair is what makes a clause, right?
Right.
So we have two different clauses?
That’s right!
In the same sentence?
Yep!
And here’s the difference between a clause and a sentence.
‘Simple’ sentences are just one clause.
But some sentences have two or even more clauses side-by-side.
We just put them next to each other?
Typically we put a comma then a conjunction between them.
Like ‘and’, ‘or’, and ‘but’?
Yeah.
Alternately, we might use some special punctuation,
but anyway, we call these ‘compound sentences’.
‘Compound’ like ... like a ‘combo’?
Two burgers in the same meal?
Or three.
Or more.
Well, I don’t want to get a stomach ache.
Sure, and if you use a lot of clauses in the same sentence, you’ll probably get a headache.
Two or three is plenty.
Makes sense.
Okay, to make a compound sentence, I need a clause, then a conjunction and a second clause,
… and maybe another conjunction and a third clause?
That’s it.
And a simple sentence is just one clause, and you’re done.
Yes.
And there’s a third kind of sentence.
Relatives, Conditionals, and Indirect Speech are all types of ‘complex’ sentences.
These don’t have multiple clauses next to each other,
but rather one clause fits inside another.
Like a double-decker cheeseburger!
Kinda.
Dependent clauses take the place of certain parts of speech within the main clause.
We won’t go into the different types right now or how they fit together,
but after this video you should at least be able to distinguish one clause from another.
I see.
So, if I know how to make clauses, and I know to put them together,
then I can create simple sentences, compound sentences, and complex sentences?
Yeah, that's right.
And we make those different kinds of sentences
because they allow us to fit more information together in one sentence,
and because it varies and sometimes even improves the rhythm and pacing of our speech or our writing.
Okay.
Also, it’s pretty natural to speak using compound and complex sentences
because they better reflect our train-of-thought than simple sentences usually do.
I see what you mean.
What happens if I do clauses wrong?
You might make faulty sentences like run-ons, in which clauses aren’t connected properly,
or sentence fragments, which are incomplete because they’re missing a subject or a verb.
Yeah, those aren’t good.
Furthermore, if you know how to fit clauses together,
you know how to use conjunctions, how to use punctuation,
and how not to use punctuation.
Oh, so it can even help you with more basic grammar points as well?
Absolutely.
Even with simple sentences, understanding clauses ensures proper subject-verb agreement,
consistency among the nouns and pronouns,
and consistency among the verbs.
That’s a lot of stuff.
And it’s stuff that’s easy to get wrong, even if you’ve been speaking English your whole life.
Understanding clauses helps you avoid a lot of common mistakes.
And it also allows you to make more interesting sentences.
Indeed it does.
So to recap: a clause is a group of words connected with a subject and at least one verb.
You can stop there and have a sentence,
or you can combine it with another clause to make a sentence.
You got it!
Cool!
So … can I eat some burgers now?