Noun Clause

[Camilus]

Dear teachers!
Could you please help me with following things?

I've heard of four kinds of noun clauses which act as:
- As Subject
- As Object
- As Object of Preposition
- As Predicate Nominative

Then I came across the following division with examples:
- That-clause = Everyone believes that Brad Pitt is the most handsome man in the world.
- Wh-clause = What Jennifer Aniston believes is not very important .
- Infinitive clause = My plan is to marry Brad Pitt.
- Ing-clause = I am scared of losing Brad if I don't move to Hollywood.

How do they refer to those above? Do they somehow tie in with one another?

Thank you very much in advance
Best regards.

[Pete]

Hi -- These 2 classifications almost unrelated to me. Both are useful. The first classifies noun clauses according to the way the clause is used within a sentence. The second classifies noun clauses according to their internal structure, the way the clause is formed. (I said almost unrelated because it happens that the "infinitive" clause never serves as the object of a preposition, or at least I can't think of a case where it does.)

Actually you should be careful about that second set of classes; some people would not agree with it. Those people require a clause to have a subject and a "finite" verb, that is, a verb form with a tense. They would call the last 2 categories "infinitive phrase" and "gerund phrase" respectively.

Others do consider all 4 forms to be clauses; they consider any phrase that includes a form of a verb to be a clause. Those people use the term "finite clause" to refer to what the first group call "clause".

Since it is all a matter of definition, neither approach is "right" or "wrong", but you must be careful to avoid mis-communication when using these terms.