Noun Clauses and How To Use Them

hi there everyone we're going to talk about noun clauses in this video noun clauses are really fun but sound really scary they're a type of form that you need to know how to use and you're probably already using in your writing and you're speaking but if you're new to english maybe you're making a mistake in them they're one of the most common types of mistakes that i see not noun clause being a mistake but mistakes with noun clauses so i'm going to talk to you about what noun clauses are and how to avoid the most common mistakes that i see in them so if you know what a noun is and you know what a clause is you might know what a noun clause is but you might not a noun is a person-placed thing or idea and clause is just a group of words that has a subject and a verb inside of it a noun clause is a clause that can be used like a noun it can function like a noun within a sentence just like a subject or an object inside of a sentence let me show you so here's a sentence or a clause i no josue subject verb object complete complete sentence it doesn't have to have an object but it's a complete sentence okay this is a noun it's a person a noun as a person i know josue so i can replace this noun with a noun clause so let's look at these two sentence endings here i said i know josue sorry i said i know that josue is funny that josue is funny is the noun clause it starts with the word that which is a signal that it's a noun clause sometimes they look like adjective clauses but how do we know it's a noun clause because it's coming after a verb and not a noun okay but that signals that this is a noun clause and it's a clause because it has a subject and verb inside josue is that's the subject that's the verb i know that josue is funny i know josue so this is one noun clause it functions as a noun okay another type of noun clause could be this one i know where josue lives where josue lives is acting like a noun within this sentence but it's really a clause within itself because it starts with the wh word that's important and i'm going to talk about that in a second starts with the wh word and it has a subject and a verb inside of it and it functions as a noun and the last kind of noun clause we can make is one like this i need to know if josue is funny i'm starting with if or whether i need to know if josue is funny so it starts with if starts with if and then it has a subject and a verb inside of it acting as a noun but it's a noun clause now let me show you how these are made now first off there's three types of noun clauses that we can create the first type is the ones that start with the word that okay that and then afterwards we have a subject and a verb now because noun clauses act like nouns they could be the subject of the sentence or they could come after the verb so let me show you how that would look in both of these that post way is funny is obvious to me here this whole thing is a noun clause acting like the subject of this sentence so i'm just going to write subject and then here's the main verb of the sentence the the noun clause starts with the word that and then it has a subject and a verb inside itself okay now that verb could be in the present it could be in the past it just depends on what time frame you want to use maybe you knew josue and you're talking about him from high school and not now that josue was funny in high school is obvious now or was obvious then just depends you could change the verb tense around depending on what you're trying to say now here we can see the noun clauses being used at the end after the verb it is obvious to me that josue is funny here's the subject here's the verb it's obvious to me what's obvious to me that post way is funny here's my noun clause starts with that has a subject and a verb inside of it so one thing to notice is that we use the that noun clauses at the beginning of sentences and after verbs or after you know a sentence ends like if you're trying to say um something's obvious something's funny something's uh scary right but oftentimes when we're using them at the end of a sentence it comes after certain verbs let me tell you what those verbs are now this is not all of them but this is some of the common verbs that we use with noun clauses afterwards with the word that the like i think that josue is funny i believe that he is not i heard that he lives in la i hope that that is true i know that he works at a college i read that he was going to become a professor i remember that he liked studying languages i understand that he may be applying for new jobs soon these are all really great verbs that you can use with that and a noun clause after them just so you know it is also possible to take away the word fact when you're making a noun clause especially when you're talking and i actually recommend that you take out the word that when you're talking and when you're writing keep it in it's a little bit more academic but for example i understand that i need to submit my work on time i understand i need to submit my work on time see i took the word that out that's fine you can do that it's great it's common it's useful when you're speaking it makes you talk faster now here's a note on using that that which is actually grammatical let me show you imagine somebody says here use this use this and i said oh yeah yeah yeah i think that that will work i think that that will work you can take out the first that before the noun clause and this that is a pronoun for what the person was talking about it's the subject of the noun clause so i think that that will work or i think that will work either way it's fine of course when you're writing and you have two facts that looks kind of weird so you could take it out when talking you take it out usually anyway we also use the that noun clauses after adjectives that describe people this is very common okay let's take a look at these adjectives notice all of these adjectives describe a person's state their feelings surprised amazed confused all these words describe how a person feels okay you have to make sure you're using adjectives like that if you want to do this so you can say i'm surprised that you want to go running with me i'm confused that you thought you had to [Music] submit your paper one week after the due date i'm glad that we live close to each other i'm proud that you have done so well at learning english i'm sad that learning languages is just so hard all right so again same thing you can take the word that out and say i'm sad learning languages is so hard i'm proud you've learned english so well i'm glad that we live close to each other or i'm glad we live so close to each other you can take the word that out okay the next kind of noun clause that we use are the noun clauses that start with the wh or question words instead of the word that they start with a wh question word so these are the wh question words that we use when we want to make a noun clause about some information or whether we know it or not or who or hind how or why let me show you i want to know janet janet is a noun we can replace that noun with a noun clause let's say we don't know who janet is and we want to know who she is i want to know who janet is i want to know who janet is who is the wh word that starts the noun clause janet's the subject is is the verb i want to know who janet is that's my noun clause it's acting like a verb so we use these w h question word noun clauses when we have a question usually and we don't want to ask it directly like who is janet sometimes it's too direct to ask a question when will you have my paper right instead we can put that question turn it into a noun clause but start with something like this like i want to know or i wonder or i'm curious something right like look at this question sometimes people are afraid to ask their ques the sometimes students are afraid to ask their teachers direct questions like when will my paper be done when are you gonna grade it when will the teacher grade our papers right when will you grade our papers and instead they can feel better about not being too direct and they can say i wonder or i want to know here's the question word when find the subject the teacher that's what comes next i wonder when the teacher now we need a verb here's the verb will grade and then finish the sentence period no question mark this is not a question i wonder when the teacher will grade our papers that's a sentence with a noun clause in it but it acts sort of as a question too now the biggest mistake i see with noun clauses is right here this is a question so when we have a question we usually have question word order that means you put the verb before the subject but this is not a question it's a noun clause you need to put the subject before the verb however a lot of times students will see a question word they will see a question word and because they're really good at studying all these rules they say oh that means i need to put subject verb opposite put the verb before the subject and they'll do this and they'll say i wonder when will the teacher grade our papers here's where you have the error okay because this is not a question it's a sentence it's a statement with a noun clause and because it's a noun clause you need subject and then verb subject and then verb so take that verb and put it after the subject always i mean it's an easy fix right let's look at another example okay here we go imagine you want to meet with somebody to do something so you say okay when can you meet when can you meet you could also say i need to know or i want to know or i wonder when question word first subject you then the verb the rest of the verb i need to know when you can meet i need to know when you can meet be careful not to say when can you meet that's not correct when you can meet here's one that's a little bit harder where did he go where did he go all right here's our question we want to turn that into a noun clause i wonder question word where now we need the subject he i wonder where he what's the verb did and go now you do not need to use did in a noun clause did is only when we're creating negative sentences or questions this is not one of those okay so all you need to do is take this verb and put it here but be careful because you've got to carry the verb tense with it this is in the past tense so this needs to be in the past tense i wonder where he went be careful a lot of people would say i wonder where did he go and that's not correct you want to say i wonder where he went one more tricky situation now this whole time i've been telling you don't put a question mark at the end of the noun clause even though it has a question word because it's not a question it's a statement well sometimes you can put a question mark at the end of a noun clause when the entire sentence is a question okay where did he go and then you start your sentence like this with the question this already is question word order do you know that already is a question now we can add our noun clause do you know where he went don't put a period now you've got to put a question mark because this is question word order so just watch out for the beginning of a sentence is it a question or is it a statement if it's a statement you're going to use a period after your noun clause if it's a question you're going to use a question mark after your noun clause now the third type of noun clause is used with the words if or whether and they're used when we want to ask a yes no question here we have three yes no questions are you hungry yes or no can we help yes or no do you like pie yes or no as you can see the only answer you can give for these questions are yes or no they are not information questions so when we want to ask an indirect question or embed a question into what we're saying but it's a yes no question we're going to use if or whether so again we're going to start with i wonder or i want to know or i need to know or i don't i want to understand okay i wonder that we're going to turn this question into a noun clause and we're going to start with one of these words i wonder if now what's the subject you i wonder if you what's the verb are now finish it i wonder if you're hungry are you hungry you don't need a question mark here it's not a question it's a statement you could make it a question you could say can you tell me that's a question can you tell me if you are hungry question mark that's fine okay now let me tell you something about the word if and whether if is much more common especially in speaking also in writing weather is more formal so if you want to sound more academic and more formal in your writing you could use the word weather instead of if so i wonder i wonder whether you are hungry now another tip about the word weather is we can add or not to it okay so i can say i wonder whether or not you are hungry i wonder whether or not you are hungry but i could also put that or not at the end i can say i wonder whether you're hungry or not you put it at the end it doesn't really make a difference i don't think but please don't do it with if okay i wonder if or not you are hungry i wonder if you are hungry or not this actually only works when it's at the end of a sentence not here but i feel like it's just so confusing so i always tell my students if you're using if don't use or not only use or not with weather and it isn't necessary but it is very common to use or not when you're using the word weather okay so let's try this one out can i turn my essay in late i want to know if let's say we're talking if subject i verb can turn my essay in late period not a question i want to know if i could turn my essay in late more formal would be i want to know whether i can turn my essay in late and to add to that you can say i want to know whether or not i can do my list essay in light for i want to know whether i can turn my essay in late or not all right last one did he call i want to know if or whether he call or called it's going to be called because this is dick i want to know if he called period now be careful again that common mistake when noun clauses is also very common with the if and whether noun clauses because students see okay i'm asking a question so they'll say if did he call like that they'll take all of that did he call i want to know if did he call and that's not correct because it's not a question anymore so you do not need that helping verb for making questions instead you just need the subject and the verb but make sure the verb is in the correct tense this is past so make sure it's passed those are the three types of noun clauses that exist there are noun clauses that are used very often in reported speech but that is a whole other video and topic i hope this video was helpful for you so you can up your english game and also avoid some of the most common noun clause errors bye-bye

Channel: Breaking English

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Keywords: Noun Clauses, Noun Clause, That Noun Clause, question noun clause, if and whether, if/whether, english, esl, learn english, grammar, english grammar, vocabulary, english lesson, english classes, ielts, toefl, native english, pronunciation, engvid, native speaker, accent, education, học tiếng anh, anglais, inglese, inglés, englisch, англи́йский, inglês, angielski, anglicky, αγγλικά, إنجليزي, noun clause, clauses, essay, writing skills, noun clause wh questions, noun clause mistakes, noun clause tips

Id: 0WXtZUHUotY

Length: 21min 41sec (1301 seconds)

Published: Sun May 09 2021