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The earliest use of the word clause in Middle English is non-technical and similar to the current everyday meaning of phrase: "A sentence or clause, a brief statement, a short passage, a short text or quotation; in a ~, briefly, in short; (b) a written message or letter; a story; a long passage in an author's source."
A noun clause is a dependent clause that functions like a noun. A noun clause may function as the subject of a clause, a predicate nominative, an object or an appositive. What she had realized was that love was that moment when your heart was about to burst. (Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
English clause elements are the minimum set of units needed to describe the linear structure of a clause. Traditionally, they are partly identified by terms such as subject and object . Their distribution in a clause is partly indicated by traditional terms defining verbs as transitive or intransitive .
A clause typically contains a subject (a noun phrase) and a predicate (a verb phrase in the terminology used above; that is, a verb together with its objects and complements). A dependent clause also normally contains a subordinating conjunction (or in the case of relative clauses, a relative pronoun, or phrase containing one).
However, the English relative pronoun (other than what) may be omitted and only implied if it plays the role of the object of the verb or object of a preposition in a restrictive clause; for example, He is the boy I saw is equivalent to He is the boy whom I saw, and I saw the boy you are talking about is equivalent to the more formal I saw the ...
Compound verbs composed of a noun and verb are comparatively rare, and the noun is generally not the direct object of the verb. Examples of compound verbs following the pattern of indirect-object+verb include "hand wash" (e.g. "you wash it by hand" ~> "you handwash it"), and "breastfeed" (e.g. "she feeds the baby with/by/from her breast ...
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a modifier of a noun or pronoun (big, brave). Adjectives make the meaning of another word (noun) more precise. Verb (states action or being) a word denoting an action (walk), occurrence (happen), or state of being (be). Without a verb, a group of words cannot be a clause or sentence. Adverb (describes, limits)