This document provides an overview of clauses, subjects, verbs, and other grammatical concepts. It discusses how every clause needs a subject and verb, and that the verb must agree with the subject. It cautions that finding the subject and main verb can sometimes be tricky, as other words can obscure them, and presents examples of how to properly identify subjects, verbs, prepositional phrases, appositives, participles and their various uses. The summary emphasizes that every clause requires a subject and verb, and identifying these elements accurately is important for proper structure and expression.

1. UCI Extension
Paper-Based TOEFL Workshop
Clauses, Subjects, and Verbs
Structure and Written Expression Skills 1-5
Longman Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test
Tutorial prepared by Marla Yoshida
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2. What is a clause?
• A clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb.
• Every sentence has at least one clause. Some have more.
• These sentences have one clause:
[Kittens are cute.]
[The students have been studying in the library.]
• These sentences have more than one clause:
[Kittens are cute,] [but spiders aren’t.] (2 clauses)
[The students [who have been studying] are tired]
[because studying is hard work.] (3 clauses)
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3. Every clause needs a subject and a verb.
• Some clauses have one subject and one verb:
[The library is full of books.]
• Some clauses have more than one subject:
[The library and the bookstore are full of books.]
[The students, the teachers, and everyone in the
audience applauded.]
• Some clauses have more than one verb:
[Cats chase mice and take naps in the sunshine.]
[The students studied all night and then fell asleep in
class.]
• All of these sentences have just one clause.
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4. The verb needs to match its subject.
• A singular subject needs a singular verb:
[The library is full of books.]
• A plural subject needs a plural verb:
[The libraries are full of books.]
• Sometimes singular and plural verbs are the same, for
example, when the verb is in the past tense:
[The student studied.] [The students studied.]
• or when there’s a modal:
[The student must study.] [The students must study.]
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5. You need to be able to find the subject.
• Sometimes it’s hard to tell which word is really the subject of
a clause. Other words can get in the way and make you
think they’re the subject. The subject is not always the word
just before the verb.
[The kitten is cute.]
[The kitten with big, green eyes is cute.]
[The kitten, my sister’s new pet, is cute.]
[The kitten sleeping in the kitchen is cute.]
• Kitten is still the subject, even though other words come
between it and the verb.
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6. Be careful of objects of prepositions.
• A preposition is a word that shows a relationship with a
noun, like in, at, with, under, or during. A preposition is
followed by a noun. This noun is called the object of the
preposition. The preposition and its object together are
called a prepositional phrase.
[The windows (of that house) need to be repaired.]
[(In my opinion,) the price (of movie tickets)
is too expensive.]
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7. Be careful of objects of prepositions.
• An object of a preposition cannot be the subject of a clause.
The subject of the first sentence is windows (not house), so
the verb is plural. The subject of the second sentence is
price (not tickets), so the verb is singular.
[The windows (of that house) need to be repaired.]
plural
plural
[(In my opinion,) the price (of movie tickets)
is too expensive.]
singular
singular
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8. Be careful of appositives.
• An appositive is a noun that comes before or after another
noun and has the same meaning. It gives more information
about the noun.
[The teacher, (Mr. Smith,) forgot to grade the tests.]
appositive
(Mr. Smith = the teacher)
[(A quick learner,) Mary memorized all the irregular
verbs in ten minutes.]
appositive
(A quick learner = Mary)
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9. Be careful of appositives.
• An appositive usually has commas around it.
• An appositive is not the subject of the sentence. The noun
that the appositive describes is the subject.
[The teacher, (Mr. Smith,) forgot to grade the tests.]
subject
[(A quick learner,) Mary memorized all the irregular
verbs in ten minutes.]
subject
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10. You need to be able to find the main verb.
• Main verbs can have many forms: Different tenses, active
or passive forms, modals followed by a verb, etc.
[The teacher grades tests every day.]
[The teacher is grading tests now.]
[The teacher has graded 35 tests so far.]
[The teacher has been grading tests for five hours.]
[The teacher will be grading tests until midnight.]
[The teacher must grade lots of tests.]
[The tests have all been graded.]
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11. Be careful of present participles.
• Sometimes it’s hard to tell which word is the main verb. You
might find a word that looks like a verb, but it’s really being
used as another part of speech).
• Present participles (the -ing form): If a present participle has
a form of the verb be before it, it’s really a verb. It’s one of
the progressive tenses. (be + ing = progressive)
[The children are playing soccer.]
[The teacher was grading tests.]
[The students have been sleeping during class.]
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12. Be careful of present participles.
• The present participles in these sentences don’t have a
form of be in front of them. They’re not the main verb of the
clause. They’re being used as adjectives to describe nouns.
[The children playing soccer are noisy.]
[The teachers grading tests in the office are tired.]
[The sleeping students are not learning anything.]
(But this is really a verb!)
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13. Be careful of present participles.
• These present participles are also not the main verb of the
clause. They’re being used as nouns. When an -ing form is
used as a noun, we call it a gerund.
[Playing soccer is good exercise.]
gerunds
[The teachers enjoy grading tests.]
[Reading a book is easier than writing one.]
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14. Be careful of past participles.
• Past participles: If a past participle has a form of the verb
have before it, it is really a verb. It’s one of the perfect
tenses. (have + past participle = perfect)
[Chris has played the piano for ten years.]
form of
“have”
past
participle
[We had eaten] [before we went to school.]
[The students have been sleeping during class.]
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15. Be careful of past participles.
• Did you notice that this same sentence was used as an
example twice?
[The students have been sleeping during class.]
have + pp
be+ing
• That’s because it has both have + past participle and
be + ing. It’s the present perfect progressive tense.
Isn’t that cool?
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16. Be careful of past participles.
• Past participles can also be used in another way. If a past
participle has a form of the verb be before it, it is also really
a verb. It’s a passive verb form. (be + past participle =
passive)
[The house was destroyed by a fire.]
[We discovered ] [that our car had been stolen.]
[Someday my garden will be filled with flowers.]
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17. Be careful of past participles.
• The past participles in these sentences don’t have a form of
be or have before them. They’re not the main verb. They’re
being used as adjectives to describe nouns.
[Soccer is a game played by millions of people.]
[I want a garden filled with flowers.]
[The broken window needs to be fixed.]
[Our stolen car has been found by the police.]
(But this is really a verb!)
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18. Summary
In this section, you have learned about these things:
• Every clause needs a subject and a verb.
• The verb needs to match its subject.
• You need to be able to find the subject of a clause.
• You need to be able to find the main verb of a
clause.
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