Subordinate Clauses

A sentence can contain a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses. A subordinate clause is a group of words containing a subject and verb and forming part of a sentence:

• We knew that his mother was at home.
• He told me his secret because he trusted me.
• They did better at the exams  than we did.
• This is the vase that I bought in China.

In the examples above the subordinate clauses are in bold type.

It is not necessary for you to make a detailed study of clauses or even to be able to recognize the different kinds of clause, but it is necessary to learn to know which is the main verb of a sentence.