Subordinate clauses are usually divided into three types by their function: relative clauses,

adverbial clauses and nominal clauses. subordinate clauses are generally introduced by
subordinators such as which, what, when, why, who, that, after, before, if, even if, if only, as
soon as, in order that, so that, etc. A subordinate clause cannot stand alone as a sentence.
The chairman, who spke first, sat on my right.
This is the car I bought last year.
Whenever I met with any difficulty, he came to my help.
I can't imagine what made him behave like that.
oordinate clauses are a se!uence of semantically "relatd sentences that are e!ual
important in ideas, independent in structures and connected by coordinators.
The most common coordinators are 'and', 'or' and 'but'.
#e heard a cry for help, and he rushed out of the house.
It never rains but it pours.
$e at the station by % o'clock, or you will miss the bus
a. Coordinate clauses
When two clauses are &oined by a word such as and, or or but, the two clauses
are called coordinateclauses, and the word which &oins them is called
a coordinate conjunction. In the following e'amples, the verbs are underlined.
e.g. It is cold, but the flowers are blooming.
The flowers are blooming and the birds are singing.
In the first e'ample, the coordinate con&unction but &oins the clause it is cold to
the clause the flowers are blooming. In the second e'ample, the coordinate
con&unction and &oins the clause the flowers are blooming to the clause the
birds are singing. The clauses in these e'amples are coordinate clauses.
b. Subordinate clauses
oordinate clauses are main clauses. A main clause is grammatically
independent, in that it may stand alone to form a complete sentence. In contrast,
a clause which describes some part of the main clause, or which is in some other
way grammatically dependent on the main clause, is called
asubordinate clause. A subordinate clause cannot stand alone to form a
complete sentence.
In the following e'amples, the subordinate clauses are underlined.
e.g. The book which I lent you is a library book.
#e told me what he had seen.
If you are ready, we will go.
In the preceding e'amples, the main clauses are the book is a library book, he
told me and we will go( and the subordinate clauses are which I lent you, what
he had seen and if you are ready. A subordinate clause usually begins with a
connecting word or phrase which &oins it to the main clause. In the preceding
e'amples, these connecting words are which, what and if.
)ubordinate clauses are usually introduced by subordinators *+ subordinate con&unctions,
such as after, because, before, if, so that, that, when, while, etc. -or e'ample:
Before we play again, we should do our homework.
We are doing our homework now because we want to play again.
The strings in bold are subordinate clauses, and the strings in non"bold are the main
clauses. )entences must consist of at least one main clause, whereas the number of
subordinate clauses is hypothetically without limitation. .ong sentences that contain
many subordinate clauses are characteri/ed in terms of hypota'is, the 0reek term
meaning the grammatical arrangement of 1une!ual1 constructs
*hypo+1beneath1, taxis+1arrangement1,. )entences that contain few or no subordinate
clauses but that may contain coordinated clauses are characteri/ed in terms
of parata'is.