Understanding clauses

We said earlier that, by definition, a clause contains a subject as well as a verb group.

Does that mean that if you wanted to count clauses in a sentence, you could count subjects in the same way we counted verb groups on the previous page? 🤔

Let's try it.

2 verb groups and 2 subjects! So far so good. Let's do another one.

3 and 3! Every verb group so far has a corresponding subject—it's like a magic rule!

Uh-oh... The second verb group in that last snippet doesn't seem to have a subject. 😭

Or does it? 🧐

It isn't explicitly written out, but it's clear from context that he who'd "been sent there" was also the one "being a nuisance in Assembly".

This is called an 'implied subject'. We know what the subject is from the previous clause, so we don't need it spelled out again. We're smarter than that!

What are the implied subjects in these sentences?

Try the same thing on this snippet, in which a submarine has tipped over after striking something beneath an iceberg:

The ability to carry through subjects from other clauses is a key way we can make our writing more efficient, so keep an eye out for implied subjects as you work through this lesson!

Next, we'll look at the elements that not all clauses have: modifiers and complements.