Microsoft Word Theoretical Course of English Grammar

Nino Kirvalidze
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(this can be easily proved if you replace the embedded clause by the pronoun ‘it’: “It didn’t 
surprise me.”). The same can be said about – “The problem is that she doesn’t love him at all.” – 
in which the predicative is missing, its position being filled in by the embedded subordinate 
clause “that she doesn’t love him at all.” The evidence, that this embedded clause is a predica-
tive to the main clause, is that it can be replaced by an adjective such as ‘difficult’: “The 
problem is difficult.”
2.
The main clause does not have to precede the subordinate clause(s) as either order is 
possible. The main clause can also occur between subordinate clauses, as in: “If you compare 
Lee with Kim, you’ll find Kim is taller.” 
3.
Each complex sentence has one main clause, but more than one subordinate clauses. 
4.
The main clause in English can’t have a complementizer (i.e. a subordinating word) 
while embedded clauses can (in the sentences below complementizers are underlined): 
“My friend claimed that Lee thought that Ceri liked chips.” 
“That Chris liked Lee so much didn’t surprise me.” 
“The problem is that she doesn’t love him at all.”
“I wondered whether they wanted to go to the place where they had left him.” 
“If you compare Lee with Kim, you’ll find Kim is taller.” 
5.
Only main clauses have subject/auxiliary inversion to form YES/NO QUESTIONS. The 
examples below illustrate how the subjects of the main clauses undergo inversion with an 
auxiliary verb:
“Did my friend claim that Lee thought that Ceri liked chips? 
“If you compare Lee with Kim, will you find Kim is taller?”
6.
Only main clauses have a tag question. Tag questions are usually ‘tagged on to’ the end 
of the entire sentence, and have as their subject a pronoun that matches the subject of the main 
clause. Since they also use subject/auxiliary inversion, tag questions are only found in main 
clauses. The examples below illustrate main clauses and their tags in bold: 
“If you compare Lee with Kim, you’ll find Kim is taller, won’t you?” 
“My friend claimed that Lee thought that Ceri liked chips, didn’t he?” 

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Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof.