Noun clauses that begin with a question word. We can use question words like who, what, when, where, why, how, and which to ask questions in English. But we can also use them followed by a subject and a verb to make a noun clause. Let's take a look at a quick example with where. Hey Helen, sorry to bother you. Do you know where I put my pencil? I can't find it anywhere. Yeah, I know where you put your pencil. Really? You heard, do you know where I put my pencil and yeah, I know where you put your pencil. Where I put my pencil and where you put your pencil are both examples of noun clauses, beginning with a question word. Let's look at some more examples that will help us learn how we can make these noun clauses. My phone's ringing. My hands are all greasy. Emily, can you answer my phone? Got it. Hello, this is Emily, Jake's hands are greasy. Yeah, just a minute. It's your cousin Bob, he wants to know where you are. You know where I am. She's at work. In the first sentence, the noun clause is where you are. Can you find the noun clause in the second sentence? Good, where I am. In both of these sentences, the noun clause is functioning as an object. An object of the verb know. Based on what Emily reported to Jake, what question do you think Bob must have asked? He probably asked, "Where is she?" Noticed the difference between the question word order which is verb, subject, and the noun clause word order, which is subject, verb. In a noun clause, we do not use question word order. This is very important because it's a common error that learners of English make. Let's take a look at another example. Hold on. He would like to know what you're doing. What I'm doing is none of his business. I don't know what she's doing right now. Can you find the noun clauses? Good. In the first sentence, the noun clause is doing the job of an object, and in the second sentence, you can see it is acting as a subject. Notice that the verb is singular. A noun clause as a subject always gets a singular verb form. What question do you think Bob must have asked Emily? Well, he probably asked 'What is she doing?" Again, notice the difference in word order. In the question, we have a helping verb, subject, and then the main verb but in the noun clause, we have a subject, helping verb, and then the main verb. Let's look at some more examples. Just a second. He wants to know why you didn't call him back. Give me that. Bob, where I am is at work. What I am doing is working and don't worry about why I didn't return your phone call and please remember why you should never call me at this time. Good day, sir. You told him. Yeah. That's right. He shouldn't call you because you're at work, right? Because I'm eating obviously. You should never be disturbed when you're eating. Okay, you saw lots of good examples of noun clauses. Now help me out. Can you arrange the words to rebuild the sentence with a noun clause? Here's a hint. He wants to know something. What does he want to know? Good. He wants to know why you didn't call him back. In this case, why you didn't call him back is a noun clause acting as an object. Let's try another one. This one's easy. In this example, the noun clause is a subject, where I am is at work. The noun clause where I am is acting as a subject. Let's try another one with a noun clause as a subject. What I'm doing is working. Good, Let's try one more. Here's a hint, Jake tells Bob not to worry about something. Good, don't worry about why I didn't call you back. The noun clause why I didn't call you back, is acting as the object of a preposition, about. I have one more thing that I need to tell you about noun clauses that start with a question word. Take a look at this first question, what is that? You can see in this question, the word order is verb, subject. As I already told you, we do not put the words in this order in a noun clause, it's the opposite. I don't know what that is. The subject should come before the verb. However, in this question, what happened? What is the subject, the word order is already subject then verb, which means to make it a noun clause, we don't need to change it at all. I don't know what happened. It's easy and now you know how to make noun clauses that start with a question word. I hope you enjoyed it. See you next time.
