Nouns are really common. Which means noun clauses are really common.
In today's lesson I'm going to teach you the function and how to use noun clauses.
We can do this in three simple steps. Step one: What is a noun?
Step two: What are the functions of a noun? And step three: The three groups.
If you can put all these together you can form a noun clause. At the end of this lesson I have
a test for you with seven questions. Can you let me know your score in the comments below? Did
you get seven out of seven? Or maybe four out of seven? Let me know. My name's Arnel, let's start.
Step one: What is a noun? I think a lot of you already know what a noun is, but I want to do
a mini review so we're all on the same page. A noun can be a person, a place, or a thing.
A person, mom, teachers, Jim. A place, a restaurant, a country, the zoo.
A thing, a pen, an animal, a tree. Nouns don't only need to be things you can touch or see. We can have
abstract nouns which are usually emotions or ideas. Trust, jealousy, intelligence, stupidity...
I'm sure you can think of a lot of nouns off the top of your head. Did you tell her about
love, travel, moonlight, Italy. About hummingbirds in all the flowers... I think you get the idea.
Take a look at these four sentences, what nouns can you see? Pause the video to do this.
Okay, here are my nouns, and you can see in sentence number three, I have a pronoun. Nouns or pronouns.
And you can also see nouns rarely stand alone. They're usually used with their
modifiers like, discounted books, or the principle.
So in today's lesson when I say noun, I mean noun or noun phrase, a noun with all of its modifiers.
Step number two, what are the functions of a noun? Nouns can be subjects, direct objects,
indirect objects, the object of the preposition, and subject complements.
If you're not sure about some of this terminology like indirect objects, subject complements,
don't worry. You don't need to be a pro on these topics to understand today's lesson. But I do have
a full length video on these topics on my YouTube channel which I'll leave down below for you.
So why am I spending so much time telling you about nouns and the functions of nouns?
Well if you understand what nouns are, noun clauses are a piece of cake. Let's move on to
step number three. Okay, you can see I have three groups here with these pronouns and conjunctions.
To form a noun clause you need one of these words, plus subject, plus a verb. Let's start with group
number one. I have my w h words: Who, what, when, where, why, how, whose, which, whom. I know how is
an exception but I'm still gonna put it in this group here. I have noun and noun clause.
I'm gonna put these next to each other so you can really see how a noun clause functions as a noun.
I know. Know needs an object... I know the plan. We have a plan, I know the plan.
I know what I need to do. What plus subject, plus verb.
You can see my noun clause is a dependent clause that functions as a noun.
Everyone wanted to discuss the problem. Everyone wanted to discuss why they had to work on Sunday.
Why plus subject, plus a verb. Again, my noun clause is functioning as the direct object.
Noun, the departure time is unclear. When we need to leave is unclear.
When plus subject, plus verb. You can see my noun clause is now the subject of the sentence.
Just like a normal noun can be a subject. And remember, noun Clauses are not questions, I'm not
saying: When do we need to leave? No, I'm making a statement. When we need to leave is unclear.
We need to think about money. We need to think about how we can raise money for our school. How
plus subject, plus verb. Here my noun clause is the object of the preposition, about. You might
be asking yourself: Why do I need noun clauses, why can't I just use a noun? Well sometimes nouns are
too simplistic. We need to think about money, that's kind of a simple idea. I can use my noun clause to
express something a bit more. We need to think about how, how we can raise money for our school.
You can't do that. Why not? You gotta pay what he says! No no no no, I pay what I say.
First things first. You gotta is very informal. And short for: You got to. Which means, you need
to, you need to pay what he says. In this clip you can see how useful a noun clause is. The
now clause can express a more complex direct object that a normal noun can't.
Okay, we've looked at a lot of examples with one
of these words plus subject, plus a verb. But sometimes your w h word is the subject.
Jessica told me who sits here, but I forgot. Who? Where's the subject? Who, who is the subject.
So remember, usually you'll see a subject in a verb after the w h word, but not always.
If who is a subject of the clause, what can be the object of the clause? Whom. You can invite whom you
like to the party. But to be honest, whom is rarely used nowadays, especially in spoken English. So many
people do choose to use who for both the subject and the object. I just want you to be aware of that.
Okay, here are all the sentences we've looked at so far:
If you're having trouble identifying a noun clause you can do a little test.
If you remove the noun clause and replace it with a normal noun or pronoun, your sentence
will still make sense. Take a look. I've chosen kind of random nouns to fill in those spaces.
And you can see all of these still make sense.
Let's take a look at a little clip... Who you decide to focus on should be
based on two things. The goal of your personal brand, and the people who can best benefit from
your unique talents and skills. So spend some time... Okay I have two clauses and they look very similar.
Pause the video and think, which one is the noun clause? Only one is a noun clause.
The first one, the first one is the noun clause. How do I know this? Well, let's do that little test.
I can remove it and replace it with a normal noun... Your business, your business should, and the
sentence still makes sense. The second clause is not functioning as a noun, it's describing people.
So we know the second clause is a relative clause. If you want more information on relative
clauses, I do have a video on my channel, and I'll leave the link down below for you.
Group number two, these words function the same way grammatically as group number one. That makes them
pretty simple. So what's the difference between who, whoever, what, whatever, where, wherever?
When we add the suffix ever we mean it doesn't matter, specifics are not important.
You want this cup holder, uh you want it mounted on the left, to the right, or in the middle? Wherever!
...
A cup holder is something that holds cups. I think that's kind of self-explanatory.
And the verb, mount. Means to attach something. Usually to a wall or other hard surface.
So in this show the characters actually trying to make a place to sleep under his desk.
So the man building this area asks: Do you want this cup holder mounted on the left,
the right, or the middle? Whatever. It doesn't matter. Specifics are not important.
And don't worry, these words are not rude or impolite. It
all depends on the context and the tone of your voice. Take a look at this clip...
Well I don't have my hearing aids in, so whatever he said is fine. And here, whatever makes sense. This
lady doesn't have her hearing aid in, so whatever he said is fine. It doesn't matter, it's fine.
What time should we meet? Whenever you're available works for me. I'm using whenever because
I don't care when, any time works for me. And remember, again, noun clauses function as nouns.
So it's not the same as saying: Whenever I get in an elevator, I feel claustrophobic.
Is that clause functioning as a noun? No. So keep that in mind, don't let the vocabulary
throw you off. Whoever draws the lucky number seven will win one thousand dollars.
Send whomever you know this message. Everyone can participate in whichever activity they want.
Wherever you choose to host the event must be within walking distance of the train station.
Let's do that little noun clause test again. Here are the sentences we've looked at in group two.
We can remove our noun clauses and replace them with a normal noun, and they still make
sense. Give it a try, what nouns can you think of that are appropriate in these sentences?
Group number three. Last but not least.
We have that, if, weather. Plus subject, plus verb. These are similar to what we looked at earlier.
These are similar to what we looked at earlier. See! I just used a noun clause as the object of the
preposition. I heard that Alex has a gambling problem. Gambling is when you risk your money
in a game. Like when people go to a casino they gamble. So I heard that he has a gambling problem.
This next example is from a book called The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith.
That he could not afford a temporary secretary was perfectly obvious. That plus subject, plus verb. Let's
move on to if, or whether. If and whether are used to choose between two options, usually yes or no.
And you might be thinking... that doesn't make sense.
Let's use a chart. You can see I have if, and whether. What's the difference? If is
slightly less formal, weather is slightly more formal, but they can be used in the same way.
Please let me know if you need my help or not. You can see the two choices: Yes you need my help, or,
no you don't need my help. Or not is optional because if already implies the two choices.
Please let me know whether you need my help, or not. Yes you do, or no you don't. With weather
there's another option. Please let me know whether or not you need my help. That's also a possibility.
I wonder if Max got the job or not. I wonder whether Max got the job
or not. I wonder whether or not Max got the job. But I do need to mention that
group 3 has its exceptions. Like, if cannot be used as the object of the preposition.
Do you think Bailey will be here for the meeting? It depends on whether the trains are
running on time. It depends on if the trains are running on time? No [Music] [Applause]
I'm not interested in content, it would be the same as a painter worrying
about whether the apples they are that he's painting, whether they're sweet or sour.
Who cares? Lots of interesting stuff here. I have a noun clause here at the beginning,
and then we have worrying about whether the apples that he's painting - whether they're sweet or sour.
I cannot use, if, after my preposition, about. And you might notice this mini clause here, that he's
painting! Is this clause functioning as a noun? No. This clause is describing apples, so it's
a relative clause. And let's confirm what we've done so far, and do that little noun clause test.
I can remove those noun clauses and replace them with normal nouns.
What's up with wonder? Why did I not change Wonder?
Wonder is a really unique verb. But first things first, the pronunciation. One, Wonder like the number one.
Wonder. Wonder. Not, w on der. When we wonder we are thinking about a question, so it makes sense that
wonder is followed by a noun clause, because now clauses often start with question words.
I wonder who. I wonder if. I wonder when. I wonder how. I wonder why.
So with all grammar it's important to keep in mind that we have exceptions, but if you
only focus on the exceptions, you'll go crazy. Let's move on to the test. Test time, are you ready?
All the examples in my test come from the book, Hideaway by Nora Roberts. Noun clauses are so
common that I actually just had to quickly look through this book to find all of these examples.
Okay, I have seven pairs of sentences. All of the sentences are correct, but in each pair there is
only one noun clause. In each pair choose the noun clause. Pause the video to do this.
Okie dokie, here are the answers!
How did you do? Let me know in the comments down below, I love hearing from you. Well, I hope this
lesson helped you and I can't wait to make another lesson for you. See you next time, bye!!!