The Probert Encyclopaedia of General Information

SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

In grammar, a subordinate clause is a clause serving as an adjective, adverb, or noun in a main sentence because of its position or a preceding conjunction. That is a subordinate clause is a part of a sentence which adds more information to the sentence, but is in itself not a stand alone sentence. An example of a subordinate clause might be: 'Because he had not eaten for a week', the full complex sentence being 'Because he had not eaten for a week the boy ate his cabbage.' Or 'Fed up with waiting, the woman left the restaurant'. A clause can be made into a subordinate clause by adding a conjunction (when, if, because, whenever) at the start of a clause. Subordinate clauses at the start of a sentence make the sentence more interesting, and encourage the reader to read on to find out what happens and to build emotion: for example: 'Red with rage, his blood boiling, Grant felt the cold steel of the water pipe in his hand'.
Research Subordinate Clause