Michael Kischner gave us a nice example: "Consider a case in which young Jeremy, not a stellar student, comes home and announces: "If I get A's on my next three French tests, I can get a C in the course!" Jeremy's father (whom Jeremy will remember as the kind of father for whom Jeremy could never be good enough), answers, "That's a big 'if'!" Jeremy's mother (a saint), answers, "A C in French -- won't that be wonderful!" For the father, the main idea was in the subordinate clause; for the mother, it was in the main clause. Neither structure nor placement has anything to do with it! Michael Kischner +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Michael considers the father's focus and the mother's, but what he overlooks is Jeremy's focus. More context would help, but it seems clear to me that, for Jeremy (not a stellar student), the more important idea is the possibility of the C: "If I get A's on my next three French tests, I can get a C in the course!" Note that if Jeremy were more realistic, the focus would probably have shifted to: "If I want to get a C in the course, I need to get A's on my next three French tests." Although I disagree with Michael, I'd like to note that his comment is one of the more interesting that I have seen in this thread. I'm worried that too much of the discussion has been by linguists using big terms which may intimidate those on the list who are more interested in the problems in the writing/reading classrooms. I, for one, am working with students, some of whom use no subordinate clauses in their writing. In class, as we analyze passages of their work and discuss the effects of clauses, one of the things I point out is that subordinate clauses push the information in them into the background, foregrounding the ideas in the main SVC pattern. "More important," to me, means more important to the message of the writer/speaker. [Note, for example, that I subordinated "as we discuss."] Finally, I am disturbed when I am told that "wh" clauses "should not" be considered subordinate. "Should not" according to whom? Although this listserver is for the discussion of teaching grammar, perhaps we need to keep in mind that there are different theories and different grammars for different purposes.