Breaking Down the Sentence
Find the sentence’s dependent clause. A noun clause is always a dependent clause, meaning it’s a part of the sentence that can’t stand on its own as an independent thought. Start by looking at a sentence and trying to find a dependent clause. If there is one, then it could be your noun clause. For example, if you say “I don’t know where the concert is,” the first part of the sentence, "I don't know," can stand on its own as an independent clause. The second part, “where the concert is,” is incomplete, meaning it’s the sentence’s dependent clause. If you aren’t sure whether a clause is independent or dependent, say it by itself and see if it makes sense as a complete thought. If you were to say “where the concert is,” you’d see that this fragment doesn’t complete a thought or answer/ask a complete question. Not all sentences have a dependent clause. Simple sentences like “I went to school” only have an independent clause. Compound sentences have 2 independent clauses, like “I went to school and then I went to camp.” If there is no dependent clause, then there is no noun clause in the sentence. Complex sentences, which have 1 independent clause and at least 1 dependent clause, can contain noun clauses.
Look for a question word to link the clauses. Most of the time, noun clauses start with a question word, sometimes called a subordinating word. The word can either be a relative pronoun, which acts as a noun, or a subordinating conjunction that introduces a dependent clause. This word links the 2 clauses together and addresses a question from the independent clause. A list of pronouns that could indicate a noun clause are who, whom, whomever, or whose. Subordinating conjunctions include which, what, where, when, why, whether, that, or how. These words usually introduce a noun clause. If you ask “Do you know where the concert is?” you see that “where” indicates the start of the noun clause. It addresses the question from the independent clause, which is “Do you know?” The question word doesn’t have to sit between the 2 clauses. In the sentence “Where I went for vacation was very boring,” the noun clause "where" is actually at the beginning of the sentence.
Check if you can add “that” as a subordinating word. Sometimes finding the noun clause is a little trickier because the word “that,” which introduces a dependent clause, can be implied. This means it isn’t actually in the sentence, but the clause is still dependent because the word is implied. You can add it in to double-check a sentence. The sentence may be “The great thing about my kids is they all get along.” You might not initially see how to break this sentence down, but try adding “that” and making the sentence “The great thing about my kids is that they all get along.” Then it’s clear that the noun clause is "that they all get along."
Underline the section that you think is the noun clause. Remember that if a dependent clause can stand in for a person, place, or thing, then it’s a noun clause. When you find a dependent clause that fits this description, underline it. Then you can do some tests to confirm if you're right. If you have trouble finding the noun clause, try circling the question words in the sentence. This can get you on the right path to finding the noun clause. Also look for the sentence verbs to get you started. A noun clause always contains a verb, so circling the verbs can also show you where the noun clause is. But be careful, because not all clauses with verbs are noun clauses. This just helps narrow the choices down.
Confirm that the clause answers a question in the sentence. When you think you’ve found the noun clause, check that it answers or addresses a question from the other part of the sentence. If it does, then you’ve found the noun clause. In the sentence “I don’t know where the concert is,” the independent clause is “I don’t know.” The question is "what don’t I know?" The noun clause answers this by telling you that "I don’t know where the concert is." Another example is “Where I went on vacation was very boring.” The question is what was boring? "Where I went on vacation was very boring," so this first part is the noun clause. A noun clause with an implied "that" is a bit trickier, but you can do the same test. In the example “The great thing about my kids is they all get along,” that noun clause is "(that) they all get along." This clause answers the sentence's question, which is "What is the great thing about my kids?" Not all sentences that use question words contain noun clauses. For example, “Where can I get a pack of gum?” is a question that stands on its own and doesn’t contain a noun clause.
Add a regular noun to replace the clause to check your answer. Since noun clauses stand for nouns in a sentence, you can usually check your work by replacing the clause with a regular noun. If the replacement makes sense, then you’ve found the noun clause. For instance, if the sentence is “Where I went for vacation was very boring,” try replacing “Where I went for vacation” with “Disney World.” If you said “Disney World was very boring,” the sentence makes perfect sense. You could also do this with a person's name. For example, if the sentence is "Whoever is confused can ask me for help," the noun clause is "Whoever is confused." You could make the sentence "Janet can ask me for help" and it still works. Remember that this isn’t a universal rule that will always work, so don’t rely on it entirely to find noun clauses. For example, if the sentence asks "Do you know what time we are leaving?" the noun clause is "what time we are leaving?" You can't easily substitute a noun here that makes sense.
Identifying Different Noun Clause Types
Find the subject of the verb for a subject-noun clause. Noun clauses as a whole can operate as the subject of the entire sentence. A subject is the part of a sentence that does the action. Look for the question word, verb, and subject in the noun clause. Then find the verb outside the noun clause. If the noun clause is performing the action in the sentence, then this clause serves as the sentence subject. For example, the sentence could be “What the English teacher said really confused us.” The noun clause is “What the English teacher said,” and the next verb is “confused.” This makes the noun clause in this sentence a subject-noun clause. If you’re stuck with the previous example, ask yourself “What confused us?” The answer is “What the English teacher said,” meaning this phrase is the subject of that verb.
Check if the noun clause is the direct object of the verb. If the noun clause is the object of the verb, then it serves as the object of the entire sentence. The direct object receives the action of the subject. Find the subject of the sentence and then the verb. If the noun clause receives the action, then it’s the sentence’s direct object. Say the sentence is “Do you know what you want for dinner?” The subject of the sentence is “you” and the verb is “know.” “What you want for dinner” receives the action, so this noun clause is a direct object. The way to check for a direct object is asking what the verb in the sentence does. In this example, you could ask "know what?" This shows you that “what you want for dinner” is receiving the action. In another example, the sentence might be "I went to the store for milk and cookies." If you ask "went where?" you'd see that the direct object is "the store."
See if the noun clause receives the direct object to figure out if it's an indirect object. Indirect objects are the recipients of direct objects. Check if the sentence names who or what receives the direct object. If the receiver is a noun clause, then this operates as an indirect object. If the sentence is “Give whoever answers the door the package,” then you can see that the noun clause is “whoever answers the door.” The verb is “give” and the direct object is “the package,” so the indirect object is the noun clause. The direct object isn’t always an item. For example, in the sentence “I gave my sister another chance,” the direct object is "another chance" and the indirect object is "my sister." Not all sentences have an indirect object, so if you can’t find it, then this sentence may not have one.
Look for prepositions to tell if the clause is an object of the preposition. If a preposition comes before a noun clause, then the clause operates as the object of the preposition. Identify the noun clause, and then check if there’s a preposition directly before it to determine if it’s the sentence’s object of the preposition. The sentence may be “I can’t forgive Mike because of what he said.” The phrase “because of” is a preposition, so the noun clause “what he said” serves as the object of the preposition in this sentence. Common prepositions are about, of, because of, except, but, by, for, from, in, to, toward, and with. Keep an eye out for these words before the noun clause to indicate an object of the preposition. Sentences can have multiple objects of the preposition, so don’t stop looking after you only find one. In the sentence, "I'm unhappy because of where I work, but where I live is nice," the noun phrases "where I work" and "where I live" are both objects of the preposition.
See if the noun clause adds information that makes it a sentence complement. Noun clauses aren’t always a necessary part of the sentence. Rather, they can simply add some more information, making the clause a sentence complement. Evaluate if the sentence has a complete, independent clause that doesn’t need the noun clause to make it a complete sentence. If so, then the clause serves as a complement. For example, in the sentence “I’m happy that you’re going to the show,” “I’m happy” can stand on its own as an independent thought. However, “that you’re going to the show” adds some more information, so it serves as a sentence complement.
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