‘从句’ (cóngjù) literally means ‘subordinate clause’: 从 (cóng) means ‘from’, ‘subordinate’, or ‘dependent’, and 句 (jù) means ‘sentence’ or ‘clause’. Together, they refer to a grammatical unit that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence but functions within a larger sentence — for example, an adverbial clause like ‘because it’s raining’ or a relative clause like ‘that I read yesterday’. In Chinese grammar, 从句 often appears after conjunctions such as 因为 (yīnwèi, ‘because’), 虽然 (suīrán, ‘although’), or 的 (de, in relative constructions).

This term is used primarily in linguistics, language teaching, and grammar explanations — not in everyday conversation. Native speakers rarely say 从句 aloud; instead, they use the actual clause structure directly. However, learners and teachers rely on 从句 to analyze sentence architecture, especially when comparing Chinese and English syntax, where subordinate clause patterns differ significantly in word order and marker usage.