Clauses in Sentences?

Question

I understand that a clause contains (in order) a subject, verb and object, like below: > He let his daughter. "He" is the subject, "let" is the verb and "his daughter" is the object. But what about the sentence below? I need some help identifying the subjects and objects. > He let his daughter listen to the music. Is this sentence two clauses? *He let his daughter* and *his daughter listen to the music*? I enquired about this and I was told that the second cannot be a clause because the verb is not finite. Is this true? My stance at the moment is: **Part 1** - Subject: *He* - Verb: *let* - Object: *his daughter* **Part 2** - Subject: *his daughter* - Verb: *listen* - Object: *the music*

Answer 1

You probably find it difficult to see that the second verb listen is actually an infinitive (to listen).

The reason you don't see it as an infinitive is that it is usual with this structure to omit the word "to."

Take a look just below and notice how I identify each part of the sentence.

Subject verb object

He let his daughter (to) listen to the music.

The words "listen to the music" all together are the object. Listen cannot be the second verb you want it to be because it is already part of the object of the sentence.