Last week’s column discussed the two general forms of noun clauses in English, namely finite noun clauses and nonfinite noun clauses. A finite noun clause is a subordinate clause in which the operative verb is in its normal form—meaning that it is inflected or marked for tense, person, and number. A nonfinite noun clause is a subordinate clause in which the operative verb isn’t inflected and takes the infinitive form, the gerund form, or its base form instead.

In the context of these two forms of the noun clause, let’s now examine through examples the eight functions that it can perform in a sentence—as subject, subject complement, direct object, object complement, indirect object, prepositional complement, adjective phrase complement, and noun phrase complement.