before we talk about noun clauses, we need to talk about nouns.

and the three jobs that a noun has. ..so the first thing that a noun can do in

a sentence, it could be the subject of a sentence. It could be the object of the sentence.

It could also be the object of a preposition. Let's look at an example.

First, let's look at this video. Hey, how was school today?

Blah, blah, blah blah. ...so the question....'what did he say?'

so I have used the noun here... answer 'his was difficult to understand.

In this situation 'answer' is the noun...it's the subject of the sentence.

a noun could also be the object of a verb. Here I have 'I didn't understand his answer'.

'answer' is the object of the verb . and then a noun could also be the object of

a preposition. Here, 'I was confused about his answer.'

'about' is the preposition. 'answer' is the object of the preposition.

Sop..these are the three jobs of a noun in a sentence. It could be the subject. It could

be the object of the verb. It could be the object of a preposition.

Now we will move on to talk about noun clauses. Before we go any further, let me just explain

a clause is a subject verb combination. So a noun clause is a subject verb combination

that acts as a noun. So if we remember this sentence, 'his answer

was difficult to understand.' 'answer' is the subject.

I have just about the same meaning with this....'what he said was difficult to understand.'

In this situation 'what he said' is a noun clause. I have 'what' the question word. and

the subject 'he'.... and the verb 'said.' ..so that whole clause 'what he said' is the

subject of the sentence. the subject of the verb 'was'.

In that situation, it is the subject of the verb.

One thing to point out about noun clauses...is that the form is a little bit different from

questions. If you look at my question here...'what did

he say?' for people learning English , this is very

difficult because we have the question word and then we have the helping verb 'did' and

then we have the subject and then the main verb.

'what did he say?' Students work very hard to get that pattern

correctly because they have to put the helping verb before the subject.

ok...so...the regular order for questions, question word, helping verb, subject, main

verb. With a noun clause, it's a little bit different...

If you can see....first...here's my question...'what did he say...'

with the noun clause it is 'what he said'....so it becomes the question word, the subject,

and then the verb. So after they have worked very hard to get

this pattern, they need to come back and get this pattern for noun clauses. question work

subject, then verb. let's take a look at noun clauses in other

parts of the sentence. let's look at the noun clause as the object

of the sentence. 'I didn't understand his answer.' in that

situation 'answer' is the object. and here, 'I didn't understand what he said.'

...'what he said' is the object of the sentence...it's a noun clause.

Now we look at the noun clause as the object of the preposition ...

If we look at this sentence, 'I was confused about his answer. 'about' is the preposition.

'answer' is the object.' I can use a noun clause to get the same idea.....'I

was confused about what he said'....'about' is the preposition.

'what he said' is the noun clause. let's look at another example based on another

video. this is the video of 'where did he go?'

"hey are you finished in there?" "hey,,,oh, no ,,,where did he go?"

Yes, the question 'where did he go?' who knows? so...'where did he go' is the question. It

has the question word 'where' the helping verb 'did'...the subject 'he' and the main

verb 'go'. I can change that to a noun clause. 'I don't

know where he went'...'where he went' is the object of the sentence.

and it's the object the verb 'know'. Let's try one more example. I have the question,

"what does he eat for breakfast?" is the question....helping verb, subject,

main verb...'what does he eat' and when I change it to a noun clause, 'what

he eats for breakfast is unhealthy'. so in this situation I have the question word

'what' , the helping verb 'does', the subject, 'he, and then the main verb 'eats.'

That was a brief introduction to noun clauses and how they work in sentences. thank you

very much.