Finite and non-finite clauses

For a sentence to be complete in English, it requires a finite verb.  A finite verb shows tense and can also show number and person when using the present tense (e.g. ‘sings’ denotes present tense, third person singular). A finite clause or sentence can stand on its own and make sense, e.g.

She is staring into space. (present progressive/continuous)

He was frightened by the traffic. (simple past - passive voice)

She frightened the cat. (simple past)

In the above examples, as in usual sentences, the subject is included.  When present or past participles are used as a non-finite verb, the subject is rarely included and the participle appears on its own.  E.g.

Staring into space – present participle ‘staring’

Frightened by the noise – regular past participle

Lit by a candle - irregular past participle

Past participles often look like the simple past tense with regular verbs having the same –ed suffix. However for irregular verbs (often the verbs coming from Old English), the form is different.  (For more on past participles, click on the past participle label on the right-hand side of my blog.)

Clauses containing non-finite verbs are called non-finite clauses.  Because they don’t contain a finite verb, they can’t be the main clause in a sentence as they would not make sense standing alone as a simple sentence. Therefore, they must stand as a subordinate clause and require a finite clause to complete the sentence.  In this way, complex sentences are formed.  

Staring into space, he heard nothing around him.

Frightened by the noise, the horse reared up.

Lit by a candle, the room looked romantic.

Using participles in non-finite clauses to create complex sentences adds variety to children’s writing. They can also experiment with swapping the clauses around for effect (and investigating the correct punctuation to use).  What is more effective?

Frightened by the noise, the horse reared up.

The horse reared up, frightened by the noise.

We can also add ‘to’ to the base form of the verb to create another non-finite form: the infinitive, e.g. to light, to drive.

To light a candle, you will need a match.

Non-finite clauses encourage children to vary their sentence structure.  In effect, the non-finite construction is filling the same function as a conjunction, by joining two clauses together within a sentence.

Tell Me A Dragon: teaching sentence structures through a great text

Tell Me A Dragon, by Jackie Morris, is a beautiful book.  It has the most wonderful illustrations, which will both support and motivate children to write more descriptively, and the structure of the sentences on each page provide children with models for writing which they can imitate or innovate. 

How you use the text will depend on the year group you are teaching and the grammatical features you have identified for development with your pupils.   I've provided a few examples from the text for each grammatical element, together with the relevant Sentence Toolkit tools which you could use with these.  Once children have understood how to use the structure and had fun with writing their own examples, they could perhaps produce a class or group book, writing sentences to describe their own dragons.

Noun phrases which provide beautiful description, using both pre- and post-modification of the noun  (Sentence Toolkit: tape measure)

• the silver moon-path,  (premodification only)
• the secret music of the wind (postmodified with prepositional phrase)
• whisper-thin wings of rainbow-hues (wings are pre-modified with 'whisper-thin' and post-modified with 'of rainbow hues')

Adjectival phrases (Sentence Toolkit: large paint brush)

•  snaggle-toothed, fierce and brave
• jade-winged and amber-eyed with a tail as long as a river (the adjectival phrases is extended by adding a prepositional phrase introduced by 'with'.  Within this prepositional phrase, the noun phrase 'a tail' is also post-modified with a simile.  The children don't need to analyse the structure in a technical way, but the model is fantastic for imitating and innovating.  E.g. My dragon is steely-scaled and stony-eyed with spikes as hard as granite.)  

  Similes (Sentence Toolkit: medium size paintbrush)

• as big as a village
• as long as a river

Simple adverbial phrases of where and when, suitable as models for writers beginning to use adverbials (Sentence Toolkit: saw)

• across the sky
• in the waves
• all day
• from far away and long ago
• around my pillow
• into my dreams

Subordinate clauses.  There are two subordinate structures I would use this text for.  (Sentence Toolkit: spanners - the conjunction spanner and the -ed spanner - and also the comma screwdriver) 

If I were developing subordination of time (Year 2), the model  I would use would be:

• When she laughs, petals ride on her breath. 

 Introducing the use of 'when' to start the sentence, will lead to the children automatically creating subordinate structures.  Alongside this, you and the class should note how the comma has been used to separate the two parts (clauses, but you wouldn't be using that term in Year 2 necessarily) of the sentence.  Children could think of other things their dragon might do, e.g. When he snarls, When she flies, and go on to complete the sentence with a main clause.

If I were developing other ways of creating complex sentences, in order to vary sentence structure, I would use the  model below.  I would use this with Year 5 and 6 pupils who were already using conjunctions for subordinate clauses:

• Curled around my ear, my dragon sings sweet songs and tells me strange stories from far away and long ago.
• Curled around my pillow...

This structure uses a past participle followed by a prepositional phrase to introduce the subordinate clause.  Children could use this pattern to develop their own dragon sentences.  Where else could the dragon be curled?  Around my arm, neck, shoulder? What other verbs could be used here?  Children could brainstorm their own past participles: wrapped (around my arm), rested (on my shoulder), draped (over my shoulder), hidden (under my hat).  Have some fun with it and get children used to the structure.  Even if they don't know the terminology, they will be able to start sentences with the pattern and will, therefore, be varying their construction of complex sentences.

Punctuation (Sentence Toolkit: screwdrivers, hyphens)
The text provides good models of punctuation, in particular use of commas to mark phrases and clauses and hyphens to create compound constructions to modify/describe nouns.  For example: snaggle-toothed, jade-winged, amber-eyed, sea-dragon, ice-dragon.

To see other texts recommended on this blog, click here.  And for more Texts that Teach, check out this link.

Guardian Grammar Quiz

 Do these sorts of quizzes really help teachers or students or do they add to confusion about the way the English language is structured?

While I have no problem with many of the questions, why have they included the two below?


Question 5
Which of the following sentences uses a subordinate clause at the beginning?

1.  Male penguins keep warm by huddling together
2.  In order to stay alive, male penguins keep warm by huddling together
3.  Huddling together helps male penguis to stay alive and keep warm

You only have the option of ticking one sentence, yet two begin with subordinate clauses.  Number 2 starts with an adverbial subordinate clauses, using the conjunction 'In order to'.  No problem if this was the only subordinate clause.  However, number 3 also starts with a subordinate clause.  'Huddling together' is a nominal clause filling the subject slot of the main clause.  There is also a nominal non-finite (infinitive) clause filling the object slot and, in addition, this has a compound structure as it contains the verbs 'stay' and 'keep' linked by the co-ordinating conjunction 'and'. 

 Huddling together       helps       male penguins to stay alive and keep warm
        Subject (S)       Verb (V)                         Object (O)

The nominal clause, 'Huddling together' is created by using the non-finite (present participle) form of the verb 'huddle'.

So this sentence has four verbs (huddling, helps, to stay and (to) keep), making four clauses in all.  I do hope this is not what we will find in the Year 6 grammar and punctuation test!

I also have concern about question 12.
Identify the main clause in the following sentence:
The rescuers, who were drafted in by the officials, were stunned by the destruction.
1.  The rescuers
2.  The rescuers were stunned
3.  Who were drafted in by the officials

Why do they not include the instrumentative 'by the destruction' as part of the main clause?  Surely the whole sentence, with  the relative (subordinate) clause removed, would read 'The rescuers were stunned by the destruction.'  This is a passive equivalent of the sentence 'The destruction stunned the rescuers.'

Testing children's knowledge of grammar is not going to make them better writers and, in my opinion, we shouldn't be wasting valuable teaching time on grammar tests.  Far better to explore, discuss and experiment with the wonderful variety of structures that English provides and consider how we can use these to create and vary effects for our readers.  Our language is very complex and to try and simplify it for tests is a complex business in itself.  Those who are driven to provide test materials and worksheets for teachers and children have a real responsibility to make sure that the aspect they are testing is unambiguous and the question only tests the structure they intended to test. 

Subordinate clauses

Teachers often ask me questions about subordinate clauses and complex sentences, so here are a few details.  

A subordinate clause is a clause that is not the main clause in a sentence and cannot stand on its own as a sentence.  Use of a subordinate clause will create a complex sentence.  In some grammar texts the subordinate clause is referred to as the dependent clause and the main clause as the independent clause.  Sometimes subordinate clauses may start a sentence; sometimes they may be positioned at the end of a sentence and sometimes they may be embedded within the sentence.

There are different types of subordinate clause: adverbial, relative and nominal.  You can link to these pages for a bit more information on each type of clause.