Lesson video

Hello everyone, it's Mr Brown again here with your English lesson and it's a really good one.

We're going to be extending our grammatical knowledge and learning a skill that maybe you might know, but it might be new to some of you.

So we're going to need to be switched on.

I'm ready to go, let's do it.

So our learning objective for today is to practise using non-finite clauses.

Uh, let's have a go at this one.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or a piece of paper, a pencil, pen, something to write with, and most definitely for non-finite clauses your brain.

We're going to start with a writing warm up, we're then going to be revising main and subordinate clauses, and then investigating these non-finite clauses.

So let's get warmed up.

And it's a simple warm up today, spot the mistakes.

I have written you a beautifully descriptive sentence if I do say so myself, your job be the teacher, spot the mistakes.

Have I made any? Maybe I haven't.

If I have, can you spot them? Pause the lesson now, it's over to you, spot those mistakes, off you go.

Okay, welcome back teachers.

Now, if you found that tricky, I'm going to give you a clue.

The focus is on comma rules.

The mistakes I've made are all to do with comma rules.

If you want to pause and have another look through, I think that's a good idea.

If you think you spotted that already and you've got all those comma rule mistakes, then we can continue.

Okay, so I can see I've got commas that should have been added between ominous and humid.

I've got one after evening, another comma between skinny and dark haired boy.

Then I've got a comma before who, after alone, and then another one between mysterious and silent at the bottom line there.

Lots of commas missing.

What I want you to do now is explain why each comma has been edited into our sentence.

So go through and out loud or you can write it down or say it to a friend or a family member or a carer who's around, and then try and work out why each comma should be there, why each comma has been edited in? 'Cause there might be different reasons, okay? Pause the lesson, have a go.

Okay, let's read through.

So our first comma between ominous and humid.

Ominous and humid are both adjectives exactly, they are describing the evening, it's an ominous humid evening.

We know we have to have adjectives separated by a comma.

I always remember even when I work with my year two children, I say, adjective comma, adjective noun, just remember that.

And right there we've got adjective comma, adjective noun.

Good.

The next one after evening and before a.

Now evening and a are not adjectives, so why is that comma there? Well it's there because on an ominous humid evening is a fronted adverbial.

It tells us when the main clause of the sentence is happening.

So, fronted adverbial needs a comma after it.

Okay, one between skinny and dark-haired boy, same reason as before, they are adjectives, they need to be separated.

Now, one before who and after alone.

Why is, who was completely alone, within commas? There's a comma before a comma after, why? Can you remember back to a previous lesson in this unit? Exactly, it's a relative clause.

It's extra information that I'm adding in and we've chosen who to be the relative pronoun because we're talking about a person, the boy, good job.

Okay and finally, mysterious and silent are separated by a comma because they are both adjectives, you're exactly right, well done.

Let's move on.

So revising main and subordinate clauses.

First of all, what's a clause? What is a clause? Remember a group of words that contain a verb, it's crucial information.

A clause is a group of words that contain of a verb.

A main clause can make sense on its own.

When you write a main clause on its own, this is called a simple sentence.

And we remember this from our grammar lessons.

Mr Main can work on his own, he can be a superhero in his own, Mr Subordinate cannot.

For example, smoke rose into the sky, main clause.

Or, plumes of thick black smoke rose gradually into the amber sky.

It's much more detailed, but it's still just the main clause, a simple sentence.

Writes a main clause about the picture from the opening of "The Viewer".

And remember, on its own this will be a simple sentence.

So give me that main clause, that simple sentence, about this picture from the opening of "The Viewer".

Pause the lesson, off you go as detailed as you can.

Okay, welcome back.

Good job.

Let's move on to subordinate clauses now.

Now a subordinate clause doesn't make sense on its own.

When you write a subordinate clause, it will need a main clause before or after it to make it make sense.

This is called a complex sentence.

For example, as the birds flew above the scrapyard, the boy searched through the objects.

See the pink subordinate clause there, would that make sense on its own? Imagine that I walked up to my teacher in class and I said, oh, I have got the best sentence here.

What do you think of this? As the birds flew above the scrapyard, that's it, there's no more.

It needs a main clause to make it make sense.

The boy searched through the objects, good.

Can you write a subordinate clause about the picture from the opening of "The Viewer"? It could start with any of these subordinating conjunctions, as, when, while, because.

Good luck, off you go.

Okay, welcome back, I hope you've got your subordinate clause there and ready to go.

Now I want to add a main clause before or after your subordinate clause.

And once you've done this, you'll have written a complex sentence.

And remember, a subordinate clause doesn't make sense on its own, so you need to write that main clause now so that your subordinate clause will make sense.

It can go before or after.

If you really want to go above and beyond, you could even play around with writing it before and after switching it, okay? Off you go everyone.

And welcome back, so let's have a look.

Here's mine.

I went for as the boy walked quietly through the scrapyard, so that was my subordinate clause, he gazed curiously at the mountains of objects.

Subordinate clause there first, main clause afterwards.

Now let's start investigating non-finite clauses.

Looking at his camera, Mr Brown smiled happily.

That's a non-finite clause, the bit in pink.

Mr Brown smiled happily is my main clause, looking at his camera is a non-finite clause.

It's a type of subordinate clause.

It cannot make sense in its own, it needs the main clause to be there alongside it.

'Cause remember, Mr Main can work on his own, Mr Subordinate cannot.

A non-finite clause and a main clause must be about the same subject.

You must be talking about the same thing.

What do you notice about these non-finite clauses? I've given you five examples.

I'm going to read them through and I want you to see if you notice anything about the non-finite clauses in front of you.

Shuffling along the dusty floor.

Scavenging through piles of junk.

Examining a rusty broken clock.

Rising gradually into the sky.

Leaning in to get a close look.

You got five examples of non-finite clauses.

Pause the lesson, have a good look and write down what you notice that all of them have in common.

Off you go.

Okay, let's see if you spotted it.

Here's one more clue just in case.

Look at the first word of each non-finite clause.

It's something to do with the first word of each non-finite clause.

I think you've got it now, haven't you? They all start with a word that ends in the suffix -ing.

Shuffling, scavenging, examining, rising, leaning.

Absolutely, well done.

They all start with a word that ends in the suffix -ing and they all end with a comma.

The non-finite clause itself ends with a comma.

That's what makes a non-finite clause.

A non-finite clause will give the reader more information about the subject of the main clause.

So what's the subject of this main clause? The boy spotted something that made him curious.

What's the subject, what's the main thing I'm talking about? Yeah, of course, it's the boy, isn't it? The boy is the subject.

So I can add a non-finite clause before this main clause to say a bit more about the boy.

Can you try doing that please, adding your own non-finite clause before this main clause? And remember, it should tell the reader a bit more about the boy and begin with an -ing word, oh, and have a comma at the end of course.

Off you go.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

I went for, looking carefully at a heap of twisted metal, the boy spotted something that made him curious.

And there I have my looking starting with I-N-G, the first word, not starting but the suffix is I-N-G.

Oh, what have I forgotten? What have I forgotten? I'm so sorry everyone.

What have I forgotten? You've spotted it, haven't you? Of course, the comma at the end of the non-finite clause, don't forget it.

These are all non-finite clauses to remember and use in any piece of narrative writing.

I wanted to give you these because these will work for our writing that we're doing on "The Viewer", but they also work when you're doing other bits of writing too.

And I've put them into three categories.

If someone is nervous, anxious or tense, then these three non-finite clauses will work really well.

Holding his breath, standing completely still, widening his eyes.

And I've used his because I've put them in the context of "The Viewer", but obviously if your character was a female, you could change it to holding her breath or it could be if it was an animal, holding its breath, holding their breath if it was a group of people.

Now, if your character is sad, disappointed or frustrated, any of these non-finite clauses will work really well.

Dropping his chin to his chest, gazing at the floor, clenching his fists, particularly if someone is feeling frustrated, maybe angry, clenching his fists.

And then on the other hand, if someone's feeling happy, excited, eager, you can use skipping as he walked, smiling wildly, widely, not wildly, although smiling wildly might work too, smiling widely, and then taking a deep breath.

If someone's so excited about what's about to happen, they might be able to open their favourite present for their birthday.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his present.

Yeah, good.

Remember these, there are ones that can work in lots of different examples of writing, so very important.

Okay, it's over to you now.

I want you to add non-finite clauses to these three simple sentences.

The first one, birds circled over the scrapyard.

Like we said, what's the subject? Birds, and then tell us a bit more about them with the non-finite clause.

The boy carefully reached through the twisted metal.

And then the third one, chimneys coughed out thick black smoke.

Now, write at least one full sentence yourself using a non-finite clause at the start.

So it's add non-finite clauses to those three and then add one, I'd write at least one full sentence yourself, so you need to go, non-finite clause and the main clause for the picture there.

Okay, well done.

We've done our writing warm up, we've revised main and subordinate clauses, and then we've investigated what non-finite clauses actually are and how we use them.

Congratulations, you've completed your lesson really good.

This is I think the final missing piece to be able to be ready to write the opening for that descriptive setting of "The Viewer".

I think adding these will take our writing to not just another level that we've already been doing, but probably beyond that.

That's how high you are working at the moment.

Great work.

I will see you next time, big lessons ahead, well done everyone.