In the sentence 'I know WHAT HE WAS DOING THERE', what type of clause is 'WHAT HE WAS DOING THERE'?

In the sentence 'I know WHAT HE WAS DOING THERE', what type of clause is 'WHAT HE WAS DOING THERE'?

• A. Noun clause
• B. Relative clause
• C. Adverbial clause
• D. Independent clause

Answer: (A)

Wh-clauses can act as nouns, serving as the direct object of a verb. In this sentence, the clause WHAT HE WAS DOING THERE is the thing that is known. It functions as the direct object of the verb know: I know [what he was doing there]. The word what introduces a content clause that stands in for “the thing that,” and the rest of the clause provides the information about that thing.

This isn’t a relative clause because it doesn’t modify a noun in the main clause; it’s not an adverbial clause because it doesn’t tell when, where, or how something happened. It’s also not an independent clause, since it cannot stand alone as a sentence.