NOUN CLAUSE

Noun clause adalah clause (i.e. subject dan verb) yang difungsikan sebagai noun. Noun
clause dalam kalimat pada umumnya digunakan sebagai subject dan object kalimat.

Noun clause dapat diawali oleh:

 Question word atau relative pronoun baik berupa single question word maupun
phrase:
o Single question word (i.e. when, how, what, ect.).
o Question word + determiner/ noun/ adjective / adverb.
o Question word + infinitive.
 Conjunction (i.e. whether dan if).
 That atau the fact that.

Sehingga pola dari noun clause adalah:

Question word/conjunction/that + subject

+ verb + …
A. Noun Clauses diawali dengan Question words

Dalam How to Address Questions sudah dibahas tentang penggunaan kata tanya baik
dalam membuat information questions maupun dalam membuat embedded questions.
Embedded questions tersebut adalah noun clause. Dalam section ini diberikan contoh
tambahan untuk merefresh memori anda.

1. Single question words.

Contoh:

1. Where she is now is still unknown.

2. When they arrive is still uncertain.
3. I know what you did last summe r and I still know what you did last summer are
two Hollywood movies starred by Jennifer Love Hewitt. Perhatikan: dalam
kalimat ini, noun clause what you did last summer menjadi object dari I know
dan I still know, dan setelah digabung dengan: are two Hollywood movies starred
by Jennifer Love Hewitt, menjadi subject majemuk dari kalimat.

Noun clause dapat ditempatkan diawal kalimat (sebagai subject) atau sebagai object. Jika
anda ingin merubah posisi noun clause dari subject kalimat menjadi object kalimat,
biasanya dibutuhkan pronoun it atau sedikit modifikasi kata. Contoh di atas menjadi:
 1. It is still unknown where she is now.
2. Do you know when they arrive?
3. Two Hollywood movies starred by Jennifer Love Hewitt are I know what you did
last summer and I still know what you did last summer. Karena merupakan judul
movies, noun clause what you did last summer tidak perlu diputar posisinya.

Note:

a) Clause yang diawali oleh question words tertentu (i.e. when, whenever, where) juga
dapat berfungsi sebagai adverbial clause.

Contoh:

1. I was reading a book when the phone rang.

2. I went to where I and my ex girlfriend had been last weekend.
3. I suddenly get nausea whenever I see his face. (nausea = mual/mau muntah).

Contoh yang lain dapat dibaca di topik: Conjunctions.

b). Clause yang diawali oleh question words tertentu (i.e. who, whom, whose + noun)
juga dapat berfungsi sebagai adjective clause. Dalam hal ini, kata tanya tersebut
sebenarnya adalah relative pronoun. Well, jangan terlalu dipusingkan dengan istilah.
Yang penting anda mengerti pola/struktur kalimatnya. Tapi, jika anda penasaran, silakan
baca topic adjective clauses.

Contoh:

1. I think you whom Mr. Dodi was looking for. (Saya kira kamu (orang) yang pak
Dodi sedang cari-cari tadi).
2. Mr. Dodi, who is a teacher, was looking for you at school.
3. Rommy, whose book was stolen last week, just bought another new book
yesterday.

Lantas, bagaimana cara membedakan apakah itu noun clause, adverbial clause, atau
adjective clause? Jawabannya sederhana. Noun clause dapat digantikan dengan pronoun
it, sedangkan adverbial clause dan adjective clause tidak. Noun clause menjawab
pertanyaan what dan who/whom; Adverbial clause menjawab pertanyaan when, where,
how (termasuk how much, how often, ect), dan why. Adjective clause (i.e. kata sifat yang
berbentuk clause) menerangkan noun, dan relative pronounnya (i.e. who, that, ect.) dalam
bahasa Indonesia berarti “yang“. Adverbial clauses sudah disinggung pada pembahasan
tentang conjunctions. Khusus untuk perbedaan noun clause dan adjective clause dapat
dibaca di topik: Perbedaan Noun Clause dan Adjective Clause.

2. Question words + ever/soever

Kecuali how, diakhir question words dapat ditambahkan ever atau soever menjadi
whenever = whensoever, whatever= whatsoever, dan seterusnya. Arti ever atau soever di
sini sama, yaitu saja/pun, tinggal dikombinasikan dengan kata tanya di depannya.
Sedangkan, how+ever menjadi however (i.e. adverb atau juga disebut kata transisi yang
berarti namun/walapun demikian) tidak termasuk dalam katagori ini.

Contoh:

1. We will accept whatever you want us to do. (Kami akan menerima/melakukan

apa saja yang kamu ingin kami lakukan).
2. Whoever can melt her feeling is a very lucky guy. (melt = meluluhkan). Be
careful: guy (dibaca gae)= laki-laki, sedangkan gay (dibaca gei) = fag = homo.
3. She has agreed to wherever the man would bring her. (Dia telah setuju
kemanapun pria itu membawanya pergi). Note: in speaking (informal),
preposition (dalam hal ini to, etc.) biasanya diletakkan di ujung kalimat. She has
agreed wherever the man would bring her to.

3. Question words + nouns

Question words + nouns yang sering digunakan antara lain: what time (jam berapa), what
day (hari apa), what time (jam berapa), what kind (jenis apa), what type (tipe apa), whose
+ nouns (i.e. whose car, whose book, ect.), dan seterusnya.

Contoh:

1. I can’t remember what day we will take the exam.

2. As long as I am faithful, she doesn’t care what type of family I come from.
(faithful = setia).
3. Do you know what time it is?
4. I don’t know whose car is parked in front of my house.

4. Question words + adjectives

Question words + adjectives yang sering digunakan antara lain: how long (berapa
panjang/lama), how far (berapa jauh), how old (berapa tua/umur), ect.

Contoh:

1. Man! She still looks young. Do you know how old she actually is?
2. I am lost. Could you tell me how far it is from here to the post office?
3. What a jerk. He didn’t even ask how long I had been waiting for him.

5. Question words + determiners.

Question words + determiners yang sering digunakan adalah: how many (berapa banyak)
dan  how much (berapa banyak). Remember: how many diikuti oleh plural nouns,
sedangkan how much diikuti oleh uncountable nouns.

Contoh:

1. Is there any correlation between how good he or she is in English and how many
books he or she has?
2. How much your English skill will improve is determined by how hard you
practice.

6. Question words + adverbs.

Question words + adverbs yang sering digunakan adalah: how often (berapa sering), how
many times (berapa kali) ect.

Contoh:

1. No matter how often I practice, my English still sucks. (Tidak memandang berapa
kali saya latihan, bahasa Inggris saya masih jelek). Suck (informal verb) =
jelek/tidak baik; arti suck yang lain: mengisap.
2. I don’t want my parents to know how many times I have left school early. (leave
school early = bolos).

7. Question words + infinitives.

Jika question words langsung diikuti oleh infinitives, invinitives tersebut mengandung
makna should atau can/could. Perhatikan bahwa subject setelah question words
dihilangkan.

Contoh:

1. She didn’t know what to do = She didn’t know what she should do. (Dia tidak
tahu apa yang seharusnya dia lakukan).
2. Please tell me how to get the train station from here = Please tell me how I can get
the train station from here.
3. We haven’t decided when to go to the beach = We haven’t decided when we
should go to the beach.
4. Marry told us where to find her = Marry told us where we could find her.

B. Noun clauses diawali dengan whether/if

Whether bisa diikuti oleh OR/NOT bisa juga tidak; makna kalimat biasanya sama
walaupun OR/NOT tidak disebutkan (ini tergantung konteks kalimat). Untuk penggunaan
if, selain telah dibahas di topic conjunctions, juga telah dibahas di topic conditionals.
Note: whether pelafalannya sama dengan weather (cuaca), tulisannya juga mirip. Be
careful, jangan sampai tertukar.

Contoh:

1. I am not sure whether she is coming or not = I am not sure whether or not she is
coming = I am not sure whether she is coming. (Saya tidak yakin apakah dia
akan datang atau tidak).
2. We can’t decide whether we should go out or stay home. = We can’t decide
whether to go or (to) stay home. Perhatikan, infinitives juga dapat digunakan
setelah whether.
3. I am not sure whether I should take economics or law after I graduate from high
school. (Saya tidak yakin apakah saya harus ngambil Ekonomi atau Hukum
setelah lulus SMA nanti).
4. If you take economics, I will take economics. On the other hand, if you take law, I
will take law too.

C. Noun clauses diawali dengan that/the fact that

Di sini that berarti bahwa, sedangkan the fact that berarti fakta bahwa. Sedangkan,
that dalam adjective clauses berarti yang.

Contoh:

1. That she has had a PhD degree at the age of 20 surprises a lot of people = It
surprises a lot of people that she has had a PhD degree at the age of 20.
2. It is the fact that the world is round = the fact that the world is round is well
known.
3. It was obvious that she was very sick = The fact that she was very sick was
obvious.
4. It seems that it is going to rain soon.

Sekarang coba anda latihan buat kalimat dengan menggunakan:

a. It is + (true, too bad, unfortunate, strange, impossible, unlikely, a well known

fact, my belief, etc) + (that/the fact that) + S +V.
b. It + stative + (that/the fact that) + S +V. Kata-kata yang termasuk stative verbs
dapat dilihat pada topik simple present tense.