Grammar refers to the structure of language and how different words fit together. Knowing something about English grammar rules should help you to construct clear and meaningful sentences.
Part of English LanguageSpelling, punctuation and grammar
A clause has one main idea. It can form a complete sentence, eg âThe cat mewed.â This is called a major clause.
Other clauses do not work as independent sentences. For example âbecause the dog growledâ. This is a subordinate clause.
A sentence can contain more than one clause:
The cat mewed because the dog growled.
Identify the main and subordinate clauses in the following sentences:
The birds ate their food, even though the cat prowled below.
As he was feeling brave, Jos took a step forward.
Johnston, who was only fifteen years old, was already a brilliant footballer.
The parts in bold are major clauses; the parts in plain text are subordinate clauses:
The birds ate their food even though the cat prowled below.
Notice that subordinate clauses can also be âembeddedâ within their major clause.