Error No.

: 6

Error: Independent clause as Subject

Some common examples

1. *Snoopy is leaving makes us all very happy.

2. *She was eager to quit embarrassed her boss.
3. *He objected to your plan was totally unreasonable.
4. *I can’t get better marks makes her disappointed.
5. *Hong Kong have many computers can help us.

Core grammatical problem

The subject of a sentence is expressed by an independent clause.

e.g. *Snoopy is leaving makes us all very happy.

In the above sentence, Snoopy is leaving is an independent clause which can stand on its own
without requiring any other elements to complete it, but is used here as the subject of the
whole sentence.

Probable causes of this structural problem

L1-related factor:

In Chinese, it is acceptable to have two or more verb phrases/clauses in the same sentence
(serial verb constructions), and for the first verb phrase/clause to be the subject of the
second clause.

e.g. 他 離 開 我 們 令 我 們 很 傷 心.
五 個 人 坐 一 架 摩 托 車 很 危 險.

In the above sentences, the first verb phrase/clause, i.e. 他 離 開 我 們 and 五 個 人 坐

一 架 摩 托 車, is used as the subject of the second clause.

L2-related factors:

1. Lack of awareness that an independent clause cannot be the subject of an English

sentence and that only nouns/noun phrases and dependent clauses can be subjects.

e.g. *Snoopy is leaving makes us all very happy.

(The fact) That Snoopy is leaving makes us all very happy.
Snoopy’s leaving makes us all very happy.

2. Lack of awareness that in English, if two or more verbs/verb phrases occur together,
one of them has to be turned non-finite.

e.g. *I like swim.

I like to swim.

3. Students may be confused by sentences with bare infinitives.

e.g. John’s explanation helped clarify the problem.

 Correction procedure

To help students (Ss) overcome the structural problem such as:

e.g. Snoopy is leaving makes us all very happy.

teacher (T) can go through the following procedure with students (Ss):

1. T asks Ss whether the following sentence is correct.

e.g. Snoopy is leaving makes us all very happy.

2. T asks Ss to identify the subject of the sentence by asking questions like “What makes us
all very happy?”

3. T asks Ss to bracket the subject of the sentence.

e.g. [Snoopy is leaving] makes us all very happy.

4. T tells Ss that the bracketed clause is an independent clause and that an independent
clause cannot be the subject of a sentence.

5. T suggests ways of turning the independent clause into an appropriate subject by

i) adding the subordinating conjunction that at the beginning of the clause to make
it dependent.

e.g. *[Snoopy is leaving] makes us all very happy.

[That Snoopy is leaving] makes us all very happy.

ii) changing the independent clause to a noun phrase beginning with the fact that.

e.g. *[Snoopy is leaving] makes us all very happy.

[The fact that Snoopy is leaving] makes us all very happy.

iii) changing the independent clause to a participle clause.

e.g. *[Snoopy is leaving] makes us all very happy.

Snoopy’s leaving makes us all very happy.

Troubleshooting:
- If Ss have problems understanding the difference between an independent clause and a
dependent clause, T can show the following pairs of sentences with no punctuation. T can
also ask Ss to supply the correct punctuation marks.
he is rich although he is rich
he is leaving that he is leaving

- If Ss have problems knowing what are acceptable subject structures, T can show examples:
John is a diligent student.
That Mary does not love John is surprising.
To finish the whole lot will take at least a week.
Understanding this aspect of grammar needs a lot of work.

Follow-up exercise
Correct the following sentences.
1. We read the passage aloud can help us improve our pronunciation.
2. You park your car here is forbidden by law.
3. She got A in her chemistry exam is very surprising.
4. He does not eat water-melon disappointed all of us.