Noun Clause Worksheet
Part I: Underline the noun clauses in the following sentences. (To double-check that what you underlined is in fact a noun clause[1], see if it can be replaced by a simpler noun.)
1. What you don’t know actually can hurt you.
2. In August, my students hadn’t learned that I’m sensitive about my inability to draw.
3. Phil wondered if I needed to take a remedial art class, so I threw an eraser at him.
4. I still don’t know how it curved in mid-air and hit Bailee in the head.[2]
5. Whoever didn’t read the Noun Clause page is going to have trouble figuring out whether there are noun clauses in this sentence.
Part II: Now, complete the following sentences with noun clauses of your own creation.
1. It would have helped the situation if you had told me ______.
2. ______will have an enormous effect on your final grade in this course.
3. The one thing I’ll never figure out is ______.
4. The judge decided ______.
5. By installing a secret camera in your classroom, your teacher was able to discover ______.
6. ______only made you look more guilty in the eyes of the jury.
7. ______must really hate you.
[1] The underlined portion of this sentence is a noun clause: I can replace it with “the answer” and the sentence still makes sense.
[2] True story. Bailee Wheeler was my advisee, a charming child if ever there was one, and completely undeserving of an eraser to the head. She didn’t return for her sophomore year, and to this day I can’t abide the possibility that getting hit with the eraser drove her away. Since then, I’ve regularly hit myself in the head with erasers in the hopes of absolving myself of the guilt.