Banning fossil fuels has many benefits ...

[alpacinou]

Hello.

Can someone please explain the grammatical structure of this sentence?

Banning fossil fuels has many benefits, the most important being reduction in air pollution.

Is this an adjective clause or a participle clause?

 

[tedmc]

Banning fossil fuels has many benefits, the most important being the reduction in air pollution.

I think you need an article there. I call it a participial phrase.

 

[alpacinou]

Yes. But the question still stands. Is "the most important being" a participle clause? What was the original sentence?

 

[emsr2d2]

What was the original sentence?

You gave us the original sentence in post #1! I don't know why you think that's not exactly how it should be written. It could be rewritten as two sentences, separated by either a full stop or a semi-colon - in those cases, "being" wouldn't work.

Banning fossil fuels has many benefits. The most important is the reduction in air pollution. :tick:
Banning fossil fuels has many benefits; the most important is the reduction in air pollution. :tick:
Banning fossil fuels has many benefits, the most important is the reduction in air pollution. :cross: because the sentence now contains a comma splice.

 

[alpacinou]

Okay, so this is the original sentence:

Banning fossil fuels has many benefits; the most important is the reduction in air pollution.

And this is my sentence:

Banning fossil fuels has many benefits, the most important being reduction in air pollution.

What kind of grammar does the second have? Is it a reduced participle clause? Is it an adjective clause?

I'm looking for the name of the grammatical structure.

 

[Tarheel]

Here is my rewrite of that sentence.

Banning fossil fuels would have many benefits, the most important being a reduction in air pollution.

The full clause is everything that comes after the comma.

I would call it an adjectival clause if I had to call it something. (Others may disagree.)

 

[alpacinou]

I would call it an adjectival clause if I had to call it something. (Others may disagree.)

But I'm a bit confused because "being" is a participle so I thought this could be a participle clause.

 

[Tarheel]

That might be right too.

 

[emsr2d2]

Okay, so this is the original sentence:

Banning fossil fuels has many benefits; the most important is the reduction in air pollution.

And this is my sentence:

Banning fossil fuels has many benefits, the most important being reduction in air pollution.

Where did you find the original sentence? If you didn't write it yourself, you need to give us the source and author. It wasn't clear in post #1 that the sentence with "being" was your rewrite of someone else's sentence.

 

[Tdol]

You can rewrite it as the most important of which is the reduction in air pollution.

 

[tzfujimino]

I'm looking for the name of the grammatical structure.

Are you looking for this?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_construction

 

[alpacinou]

Yes. That is an adjective clause. But is "the most important being" an adjective clause too?

The problem is I want to teach it but I don't know what to call it.

You can rewrite it as the most important of which is the reduction in air pollution.

I wrote the sentence myself. I have seen many similar sentences.

Where did you find the original sentence? If you didn't write it yourself, you need to give us the source and author. It wasn't clear in post #1 that the sentence with "being" was your rewrite of someone else's sentence.

 

[alpacinou]

Yes. It's a course focused on grammar.

Why?

Are you teaching a course in grammar?

If you are trying to help your students communicate in English, then the labelling of clauses is an irrelevant distraction.

 

[Tarheel]

Yes. It's a course focused on grammar.

Please note that the comment should come after the quote.

 

[alpacinou]

May the force be with you. There is, unfortunately, no universal agreement on the terminology of grammar.

Okay. But what do you, as an English teacher, call this clause?

Banning fossil fuels has many benefits, the most important being a reduction in air pollution.

 

[PaulMatthews]

Hello.

Can someone please explain the grammatical structure of this sentence?

Banning fossil fuels has many benefits, the most important being reduction in air pollution.

Is this an adjective clause or a participle clause?

Banning fossil fuels has many benefits, the most important being reduction in air pollution.


It's neither. It's not a syntactic unit, not a constituent, but part of two separate constituents.

"The most important being reduction in air polution" is a gerund-participial clause with "the most important" as subject and "being reduction in air pollution" as predicate.

The noun phrase "reduction in air pollution" functions as predicative complement of copular "being".

 

[alpacinou]

"The most important being reduction in air polution" is a gerund-participial clause with "the most important" as subject and "being reduction in air pollution" as predicate.

So, it is kind of a participial clause, but not quite so.

 

[PaulMatthews]

So, it is kind of a participial clause, but not quite so.

I think that's a potentially misleading way of putting things. The expression that you underlined in your original question is not a clause but just part of one, as I explained in my previous answer.