Download Independent and Dependent Clauses

Independent and Dependent
Clauses
What is a clause?
Nice try, but no…

A clause is a group of words that
contains a subject and a verb.
Reminder about subjects and verbs in
sentences…
Ms. Stanley’s students love
grammar.
The subject of a
sentence is who or
what the sentence is
about.
The verb is a word or
group of words that
expresses an action,
a condition, or a state
of being.
There are two main types of
clauses:


An independent (or main) clause
expresses a complete thought and
can stand alone as a sentence.
A subordinate (or dependent)
clause contains a subject and a verb
but does not express a complete
thought and cannot stand alone as
a sentence.
Independent Clauses


Independent clauses are independent. They are
clauses that can stand alone when they are removed
from a sentence.
That means that they have a subject, verb, and they
make a COMPLETE THOUGHT!!! Look at the
sentence below for an example:
Saw 5 is a great movie.
It’s got a subject: Saw 5
It’s got a verb: is
It’s a complete thought: We can
understand it.
Dependent Clauses

Dependent clauses also have a subject and a verb, but
they are missing a complete thought. Somehow, they
just won’t make sense on their own. For example…
What if we play with the structure of the previous sentence?
While Saw 5 is a great movie.

Now we have a subject and a verb, but there is no complete thought.
We ask ourselves, “while what?”

This sentence is confusing. It can’t stand on its own. We call a
sentence like this a Dependent Clause (a.k.a sentence fragment)
because it depends upon something else being added in order for it to
make sense.
Dependent Clauses (cont.)

Let’s look at another example:
Because Saw 5 is a great movie.

We still have a subject and a verb, but it’s
still confusing. There’s no complete thought.
We ask ourselves, “because why?” Again,
this is a Dependent Clause.
Subordinating Conjunctions

Something becomes a dependent clause
when it begins with a subordinating
conjunction (like “while” or “because”
in the previous slides). That is what
keeps it from expressing a complete
thought on its own. Refer to your
conjunction chart for more of an
explanation of this.
Coordinating Conjunctions
What are they?
 and,
but, for, nor, or, so, yet
What do they do?

Coordinating conjunctions are often used to
join two independent clauses, but can also
be seen when there is a double verb.
For example…
I went to the movies, AND I ate popcorn.
 I went to the movies AND ate popcorn.

Subordinating Conjunctions
What are they?

Since, because, during, while, after, before, during,
although, unless, when, though, even though, as soon as, if,
whenever, where, since, until…
What do they do?

Subordinating conjunctions always create a subordinate
clause. By their nature, these words imply that more
information must follow. In order to have a complete
sentence, an independent clause must be hooked to the
subordinate clause to complete the idea.
For example…

While I was at the movies, I ate popcorn.

“I ate popcorn” completes the thought that began in the
subordinate clause.
So what’s the deal with those
dependent clauses?
Dependent Clauses can not stand alone.
They are like the Saw movies. You need to
see them all for Saw 5 to make sense.
Dependent clauses need to hook up to
independent clauses to make sense.
Combining Independent and
Dependent Clauses
Let’s make the previous dependent clauses into complete
sentences…
While Saw 5 is a great movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street is terrifying.
Subordinate Clause


Independent Clause
I added another clause that has a subject (A Nightmare on Elm
Street), a verb (is) and is a complete thought. In other words, I
added an independent clause. Now the incomplete thought (or
fragment) is a complete sentence!
Notice that the dependent clause is now called a subordinate
clause. Now it’s a part of a complete sentence, but it’s the less
important idea, so we call it a subordinate clause. It’s
subordinate to the independent clause, and the independent
clause is the main idea.
One more time!
How about another example?
Because Saw 5 is a great movie, I took my mom to see it.
Subordinate Clause
Independent Clause
Switching it up a bit…
In the above examples, we put the
dependent/subordinate clause first, but we can
switch it up and put the independent clause first.
I took my girlfriend to see Saw 5 because the movie is so romantic.
Independent Clause
Subordinate Clause
*Notice that when the independent clause comes first and hooks to
the dependent/subordinate clause with a conjunction, I do not
need to use a comma.*
Joining independent clauses together

Finally, while we can never combine two dependent clauses to
make a complete thought, we can combine two independent
clauses with a coordinating conjunction (connector word) such
as and, but, nor, or.
Saw 5 is a great movie, and my girlfriend never called back!
Independent Clause
Coordinating
Independent Clause
Conjunction
*Notice that we use a comma when combining two independent
clauses with a conjunction.*
Comma Rules Recap

You DO need to use commas when:



Joining two independent clauses together with a
conjunction
 Ex: We finished the grammar unit, BUT my students
begged for more.
The dependent clause comes before the independent clause
in a sentence
 Ex: Even though I ran out of lessons, they wouldn’t take
no for an answer.
You DO NOT need to use commas when:

The independent clause comes before the dependent clause
in a sentence
 I finally gave in when Jay started crying.