Clauses

Class / Description / Examples /
Noun / A naming word that identifies people, places, things, ideas or qualities. / boy, Melbourne, laptop, excitement, consideration
Pronoun / A word that stands for a noun that has been used before. / it, that, he/she/they, those, them this
Adjective / A word that gives extra information about a noun. / wonderful, enormous,silent, impressive, deadly, frightening
Verb / A doing word. A word that indicates what something or someone does. / eat, make, think, talk, is, has, loves, fights
Adverb / A word that give extra information about a verb. / now, occasionally, soon, overhead, downstairs, underwater, slowly, carefully, loudly, quickly
Preposition / A word placed at the beginning of phrases indicating time, place and manner. / on, in, for, from, by, at, onto, above, after, to
Conjunction / A word that links two clauses, words or groups together. / and, but or, then, if, also, when, because

Clauses are made up of words and word groups (just like the ones we have been looking at.) A clause is a basic message unit. They combine in different ways to form sentences.

A clause tells us that something is going on; for example, something happening, someone saying something or something relating to something else. Because of this, the central element in a clause is a verb group. If there isn’t a verb group then it won’t be a proper clause.

A clause also must contain one or more other word groups (noun groups or adverbial groups.)

Each of the clauses below has been divided into groups.First, find and label the verb group. Then examine the groups that surround the verb group, and label as either noun group or adverbial group.

How to identify word groups

To identify which are the noun groups ask yourself who or what is this sentence about?

To identify which is the verb group ask yourself what is happening in this sentence?

To identify which are the adverbial groups ask yourself where/when/how is it happening in this sentence?

Suddenly / James / heard / a commotion
Adverbial group / Noun group / Verb group / Noun group
An anxious young man / stood / in the doorway
The old surfboard under the house / was / his favourite one / until yesterday
She / closed / her laptop.
Then, / genuinely exhausted / she / started cooking / dinner
Another destructive rumour / had been spread / through her careless talk.

Task

1.  Write a clause using at least one verb group and one noun group. You can use an adverbial group as well if you wish.

2.  When you finish swap your sentence with the person next to you. They block their sentence into groups (like the sentences above) and label them appropriately.

3.  Repeat this until you are confident and not making any mistakes.