Question

What are clauses? explain in detail

Answer 1

A clause is a group of words containing a verb.  Clauses differ from phases in that they have both subject and verb. A sentence consists of one or more clauses.

Examples -

She accepted the gift.

(The sentence has one verb and therefore one clause.)

She accepted the gift when she won the race.

(This sentence has two verbs. Therefore, it has two clauses.)

There are two main clauses-

1. The Principal clause (main clause) -

It is the backbone of the sentence on its own.

Example :

The children went home.

2. The Subordinate clause (dependent clause) -

It can act as adjectives, adverb or noun and depends upon the principal clause for. it's meaning.

Example :

The children went home before the sun went down.

Answer 2

a unit of grammatical organization next below the sentence in rank and in traditional grammar said to consist of a subject and predicate.