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The basics
The left side
The middle
The right side
| De minister-president kondigde aan dat hij niet zou aftreden. | The prime minister announced that he would not resign. |
As mentioned in the introduction, a subclause always constitutes a sentence-element, like PLACE, TIME, or MANNER. In the above example, the subclause serves as a direct object.
A subordinate clause begins with a subordinating conjunction, e.g. 'because', 'since', or 'while'. But the subclause itself contains the same kind of sentence-elements. It is a small sentence inside a bigger sentence.
The word order of the subclause is slightly different from that of the main clause.
In a subclause, all verbs are grouped at the end.
"All verbs" includes the finite verb (the conjugated verb). This means that the inseparable finite formation -which is inseparable in a main clause- is separated.
| . | Left | Middle | Right |
| main clause | conj | subject | DIROB | verbs |
| Ze verwachten | dat | de film | een groot succes | zal worden. |
| They expect (that) the film will become a great success. |
We find the subject at the beginning (just like the finite formation) but we move the finite verb to the end, where it joins the other verbs. Instead of the 'other verbs' (other than the finite verb), we can now simply say 'all verbs'.
You may wonder if there is a specific order in which the verbs in 'all verbs' should appear. We will deal with this in a few pages. First, let us compare the subordinate clause with the main clause. This way, you can easily see the (small) difference in sentence structure.