NOUN CLAUSES FROM DIRECT STATEMENTS

Noun clauses can function as objects after certain verbs like say, know, realize, understand, believe, think, feel, etc. Study these examples and pay attention to two grammatical elements:

  1. The tense of the verb in the noun clause is consistent with the tense of the main verb.
  2. The subordinator is that when the noun clause comes from a direct statement, and it is optional.
I believe (that) folktales can teach children important lessons about life.
Most parents know (that) it's very important to read to their children.
When my children were little, I realized (that) my daughters loved folktales.
In the folktale, "Why the Baby Says Goo," we learned (that) adults need to understand the nature of small children. (The statement in the noun clause is generally true; therefore, the tense in the noun clause is present.)
In "The Little Daughter of the Snow," the reader could easily see (that) the couple didn't love their daughter enough, so there were serious consequences.

In the following quiz, you will answer questions by taking a quotation that is a direct statement and making it the noun clause object after the verb in the question. You will need to write complete sentence answers. The questions and quotations are based on the folktale, "The Boy of the Red Sky" on page 22 of World Folktales. Here is an example below.

Question: What did the lady say to herself?
Quotation: I wish I had a child.
Combined sentence with noun clause object: The lady said that she wished she had a child.

A third grammar point you must be aware of is pronoun shift in the noun clause object. In the quoted speech the pronoun is I, or first person, since the lady is speaking in the first person. In the embedded noun clause in the reported statement, the pronoun is she, or third person, since the sentence is about the lady.

Summary of grammatical elements:

  • Noun clause objects follow certain Reporting Verbs such as say, claim, tell, state, think, realize, believe, etc.
  • The tense in the noun clause must be consistent with the main verb.
  • First person pronouns in direct or quoted speech become third person pronouns in indirect or reported speech.

Now take the QUIZ.

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