An unfinished clause is a dependent or subordinate clause with an unfinished verb, often in the infinitive form or with “-ed” or “-ing” suffixes. It requires an independent clause to form a complete sentence and lacks tense or aspect.
An unfinished clause is the part of a sentence that typically functions as a dependent or subordinate clause within it and includes a verb in one of a few forms. This type of clause often includes a verb in its infinitive form, which may require the auxiliary “to” with it. The suffixes “-ed” and “-ing” can also be used to change the verb within such a clause, although in all of these examples the verb is still functionally infinitive. Hence the name “unfinished clause”, because the verb inside it is not finished and does not express the tense or aspect.
There are two main elements of an unfinished clause: it is a dependent or subordinate clause within a sentence and the verb within it is unfinished. A clause is a large part of a sentence, and independent clauses are essentially simple sentences that can stand on their own. Something like “He wrote a letter” is a simple sentence and is also an independent clause.
A dependent clause is similar to an independent clause in many ways, except that it lacks enough information to function on its own. Requires an independent clause, otherwise it is an incomplete sentence. For example, “send to his mother” is a dependent clause since it lacks a subject and is therefore not a complete sentence. In this case, it is an unfinished clause and could be joined with the previous independent clause to form a complete sentence such as “she wrote a letter to send to her mother”. This provides more insight into the act of writing; in this case it is an adverbial describing the purpose of the action.
The other main element of a non-finite clause is the form of the verb inside it. Verbs in a non-finite clause are typically in the infinitive form, which often includes the auxiliary “to”, such as “send” in the previous example. The infinite form, which means the same as “unfinished”, lacks time or aspect. For example, in the sentence above, “written” is in the past tense and therefore finite, while “send” is unfinished and does not express any particular tense.
A verb in a non-finite clause can also be a form other than the infinitive, typically with an “-ed” or “-ing” suffix. For example, the sentence “Awoken from a deep sleep, he coughed violently” contains an unfinished clause in the form of “Awoken from a deep sleep”. In this case, the verb “awakened” is in the “-ed” form and is unfinished because there is no subject in the sentence. The suffix “-ing” can also be used in much the same way, e.g. “Looking down the stairs, the girl felt a sudden wave of dizziness.” Both of these examples start with dependent clauses that build on independent ones following the commas.
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