Sentence Complexity and Embedding

Subordinate Noun Clauses

Activity 15.7: Noun Clause Structure

Each sentence below contains two clauses.  Find them and draw a vertical line to separate the two.  Then describe how these noun clauses differ from the ones we’ve already looked at.

1. Ted knows who stole the necklace.
2. I understand what made him mad.
3. We can’t decide where we should eat dinner.
4. They talked about when they would meet.
5. I don’t know why Johnny ate three packets of ketchup.
6. The teacher explained how we should line up.
7. What made him mad was the tone of your voice.
8. Why Johnny ate three packets of ketchup mystifies me.

Differences from other noun clauses:

Answers

Wh- Noun Clauses

Activity 15.7 highlights the final details of noun clauses that we will look at here.  We can see the matrix clause structure showing up again in these sentences, so that is not new.  However, we can see the structure of the noun clause itself is different.  In these examples, we don’t see the usual subordinating conjunctions in use, nor do we see that they are simply absent.  These sentences all have noun clauses that begin with the interrogative adverbs and pronouns.  This type of noun clause is often called a wh-noun clause since it does begin with these words.

Wh-noun clauses are very difficult for ELs, more difficult than regular noun clauses.  The reason for the greater difficulty lies in the inclusion of these wh- words.  Because the use of the wh- words triggers the idea of a question, ELs will often use subject-auxiliary inversion in wh- noun clauses, but inversion is appropriate only for actual questions, not for noun clauses.  Therefore, ELs must almost unlearn something they learned.  In fact, some learners will even include a question mark at the end of these sentences, as if they are writing direct speech sentences instead of indirect speech sentences.

In conclusion noun clauses aren’t difficult in concept, but some of the details of form prove difficult, and these points should be taught explicitly when students are ready for them.

End of Lesson