Modal subordination

Modal subordination is when one idea in a sentence depends on another idea to make sense, but the second idea also adds some extra information about how the first idea happened or might happen.

Let's say you want to tell a story about going to the park. You might start with the main idea: "I went to the park." But maybe you want to add some extra information about how you felt or what you did there. Modal subordination lets you do that by adding another idea that is "subordinate" or "secondary" to the main idea.

For example, you might say: "I went to the park because I wanted to play on the swings." In this sentence, "I went to the park" is the main idea or "independent clause," while "because I wanted to play on the swings" is the subordinate or "dependent clause." The second idea depends on the first idea to make sense ("because" tells us why you went to the park), but it also adds some extra information about your motivation.

Modal subordination can also involve words like "if," "when," "although," and "while," which show a relationship between the main and secondary ideas. For instance, you could say: "While I was at the park, I saw a dog chasing a ball." In this sentence, "While I was at the park" is the subordinate clause that tells us when the main action ("I saw a dog chasing a ball") happened.

Overall, modal subordination helps us add more detail and nuance to our sentences by connecting different ideas together in a logical way.