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 Finding Clauses
Practice Exercise # 3

Directions:  [Work through the text one sentence at a time.]
1. First place parentheses ( ) around every prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every finite verb twice, and label complements (PA, PN, IO or DO). [Reminder: A predicate adjective describes the subject; a predicate noun "equals" the subject; an indirect object is someone or thing "to" or "for" whom (or what) the action of the verb is performed. Any other complement has to be a direct object.]
 

The text is:
     A Sunday school class was studying the Ten Commandments. They were ready to discuss the last one. The teacher asked if anyone could tell her what it was. Susie raised her hand, stood tall, and quoted, "Thou shall not take the covers off the neighbor's wife."
Note: In creating these pages, I cannot create a double underline. I will therefore underline both subjects and finite verbs once, but subjects will be in green; finite verbs in blue.

Sentence #1

     Work your way through the text one sentence at a time. The first sentence is:
       A Sunday school classwas studying the Ten Commandments (DO). /
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

Because there is only one S/V/C pattern, put a vertical line at the end of the sentence. We are finished with it.

Sentence #2

The second sentence is:
They wereready (PA) to discuss the last one. /
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

Because there is only one S/V/C pattern, put a vertical line at the end of the sentence. We are finished with it.

Sentence #3

The third sentence is:
The teacherasked if anyonecould tell her (IO)what (PN of "was") itwas.
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

Because there is more than one S/V/C pattern, we need to start with the last one and work backwards.  The finite verb in the last pattern is "was." The subject is "it," and the complement is "what." The last word in this clause is obviously "was." To find the first word, we need to look at the  word before "what." Is "her" part of this clause, or does it go to a different S/V/C pattern? Since "her" is the indirect object of "could tell," it clearly goes to a different pattern. Thus we have identified "what it was" as a clause.
     Next we need to determine whether it is a main or a subordinate clause.  Does it "chunk to" a word outside itself? A little thought should indicate that it answers the question "should tell her what?" That means that this clause is the direct object of "should tell," and, functioning as a direct object, it has to be a subordinate clause.
The teacherasked if anyonecould tell her (IO)[DO of "could tell" what itwas.]
Move (backward) to the next pattern, which is based on the verb "could tell." Because a clause is a subject / finite verb / complement pattern and all the words that chunk to it, this clause includes the "what it was" clause which functions as its complement. The last word in the "could tell" clause is thus "was."
      Looking for the first word, we find "if" in front of the subject "anyone." Because "if" is always a subordinate conjunction, we know both that "if" is the first word of the clause and that the clause is subordinate. 
     To make sure that it is subordinate, we need to find a word (outside of where we would place the brackets) that this clause "chunks to." Clearly, that word is "asked," since the "if" clause answers the question "asked what?" And, since the "if" clause answers the question "what" after a verb, we know that the clause has to be the complement of the verb.
     What kind of subordinate clause is it? The "if" clause does not describe the subject ("teacher"), so it cannot be a predicate adjective. Likewise, it is not "equal" to the teacher, so it cannot be a predicate noun. Nor does the clause indicate "to" or "for" whom the teacher asked (as would the word "class" if the sentence had been "The teacher asked the class if anyone . . . ." Thus the clause is not an indirect object. The only possibility left is direct object.
The teacherasked[DO of "asked" if anyonecould tell her[DO of "could tell" what itwas.]]
We have one pattern left (teacher asked ...), which means that we can simply put a vertical line after the sentence.
The teacherasked[DO of "asked" if anyonecould tell her[DO of "could tell" what itwas.]]/

Sentence #4

The fourth sentence is:
Susie raised her hand (DO), stood tall, and quoted, "Thoushall not take the covers (DO)(off the neighbor's wife)."
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

Here again, because there is more than one S/V/C pattern, we need to start with the last one and work backwards.  The verb in the last pattern is "shall take." The complement is "covers." To find the last word in this clause, we need to look at the prepositional phrase, "off the neighbor's wife." Does this phrase meaningfully go with "shall not take the covers," or does it go back to some word before the subject "Thou"? Obviously it goes with "shall not take the covers." Thus the "shall take" clause ends with the word "wife."
     To find the first word in this clause, we need to look at the word before the subject "Thou." Once you do that, you should see not only that "quoted" is part of a different pattern, but also that the "shall take" clause is the complement of "quoted." (It answers the question "Quoted what?")
     What type of complement is the "shall take" clause? It is clearly not a predicate adjective because it does not describe the subject of "quoted" ("Susie"). Nor is it equal in any way to "Susie," so it is not a predicate noun. Because it does not tell "to" or "for" whom Susie quoted, it is not an indirect object. The only choice left is direct object.
Susie raised her hand (DO), stood tall, and quoted, [DO of "quoted" "Thoushall not take the covers (DO)(off the neighbor's wife)."]
Finished with the "shall take" clause, we move (backward) to find that we have only one pattern left. Note that although it has three finite verbs, they all share the same subject, so they are all part of the same pattern. This means that we have one pattern that begins with "Susie" and ends with "wife." That is the main clause, so all we need to do is to put a vertical line after it. We're done.
Susie raised her hand (DO), stood tall, and quoted, [DO of "quoted" "Thoushall not take the covers (DO)(off the neighbor's wife)."]/