Question

Identify the subordinate clause as and name it:
This is the doctor who treated me.

Answer 1

Hint: A subordinate clause is a part of a sentence that is dependent on the main clause to give it complete meaning because a subordinate clause cannot form a meaningful sentence on its own.

Complete step by step answer:
The given sentence has two parts –
- this is the doctor
- who treated me
As for the clause “this is the doctor”, it is an independent clause that indicates a particular doctor. It can be left the way it is and it would make perfect sense.
The second part is “who treated me”, this is a subordinate clause because if there was no first part mentioning who or what ‘treated me’ this clause is rather meaningless.
Going by that logic and understanding that the second part cannot form a meaning of its own without depending on the first part of the sentence which mentions ‘this is the doctor’, the subordinate clause in the given sentence is – “who treated me”.
A subordinate clause can be easily recognized if the conjunction is spotted. Any subordinate clause usually begins with a conjunction indicating its dependency on the main clause in a sentence.

Additional Information: Main clause is also known as ‘independent clause’ and subordinate clause is also known as ‘dependent clause’.

Note:
The existence of subordinate clauses is impossible without the main clause, although a main clause can exist without a subordinate clause. Always look for conjunctions like ‘yet’, ‘but’, ‘who’, ’which’ to differentiate the subordinate clause from the main clause.