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In grammar, a content clause is a dependent clause that provides content implied or commented upon by an independent clause. The term was coined by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen. Content clauses have also traditionally been called noun clauses or nominal clauses, but current linguistics tends to view those names as misnomers and prefers content clause.
Similarly with certain verb-like :
They also often serve as complements of nouns—both nouns corresponding to the above verbs, and nouns like fact, idea, and so on. Here, that is almost always included:
Finally, they can serve as subjects, as complements of predicative adjectives in clauses with linking verb or in Small clause or as object complements. In this latter use, they are commonly postponed to the end of their main clause, with an expletive it standing in their original place as subject:
Here as before, a conjunction is almost always included, although it does not need to be that:
Such clauses correspond to direct questions, which are actually asked. The direct questions corresponding to the examples above are What did you do? How did he manage it? Did I look that bad? Where are the files? Notice how, in English (and in some other languages), different syntax is used in direct and indirect questions: direct questions normally use subject-verb inversion, while indirect questions do not. Reported questions (as in the last of the examples) are also subject to the verb tense and other changes that apply generally in indirect speech. For more information see interrogative mood and English grammar.
Indirect questions can serve as adjective and noun complements. Here, in English, they are generally introduced by a preposition, especially of:
Like declarative content clauses, they are often postponed to the end of their main clause, with an expletive it standing in their original place, when they serve as the subject of a verb, or as the direct object of a verb that links them to a predicative:
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