Subordinate clauses
Use subordination (when, if, that, because) and co-ordination (or, and, but) to join clauses and create compound and complex sentences
Typical age: 6–9 years
“When your child writes a story or a message, can they join two ideas with words like "because", "but", "when", or "if" — rather than writing every thought as a short separate sentence?”
0 / 3 mastered
Explore graph
Needs first
- Listening and responding
Listening skills support understanding complex sentence structures
- Building sentencesREQUIRED
Must understand sentences before combining clauses
- Four Types of Sentences
Understanding sentence types supports creating complex sentences
- Joining Words with 'And'REQUIRED
Must be able to join with 'and' before learning subordination and other co-ordinating conjunctions
Unlocks next
- Fixing Fragments & Run-OnsREQUIRED
Recognising fragments and run-ons requires understanding how independent and dependent clauses combine; subordination/coordination knowledge is essential
- Grammar Terms: Clauses and Conjunctions
Understanding subordination needed for clause/subordinate clause terms
- Commas Before Joining WordsREQUIRED
Learners must understand coordinating conjunctions joining clauses before learning the punctuation rule for compound sentences
- The subjunctive moodREQUIRED
Subjunctive forms build on understanding of subordination and clause structure
- Conjunctions, Prepositions and InterjectionsREQUIRED
Conjunction functions builds on subordination/coordination
- Correlative ConjunctionsREQUIRED
Correlative conjunctions build on coordination understanding
- Expressing Time, Place and CauseREQUIRED
Time/cause conjunctions extend Y2 subordination/co-ordination
- Punctuating ClausesREQUIRED
Semi-colons between clauses requires understanding of independent clauses
- Relative ClausesREQUIRED
Relative clauses extend subordination; learners must understand how subordinate clauses work before embedding relative clauses
- Varying Sentence StructureREQUIRED
Sentence crafting builds on clause knowledge