It didn’t pass inspection.ĭependent : My car, which didn’t pass inspection, broke down less than a mile from my home. Independent: My car broke down less than a mile from my home. ĭependent: You have to finish your vegetables before you can eat dessert. Independent: You have to finish your vegetables, and then you can eat dessert.
ĭependent: If the interview goes well, next Tuesday will be my first day at my new job. Independent: Next Tuesday will be my first day at my new job. Independent and dependent clause examples Keep in mind that, with restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses, the relative pronouns that and which can also act as the subject of the clause. The pen that I had been looking for was in my pocket the whole time. That means restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses are both dependent clauses. Moreover, dependent clauses include all adjectival clauses, which modify nouns. Let’s host our anniversary party where we first met. Adverbial clauses can add more details about how an action took place, such as when, where, or why. They also include all adverbial clauses, which modify verbs and adjectives. Kunal likes to stay up late because no one bothers him at night. For starters, they include clauses that show a complete action with a cause-and-effect relationship to another action. Be careful, though, because not all dependent clauses use subordinating conjunctions.ĭependent clauses are more common than you might realize. You can find a complete list here of all the subordinating conjunctions, which include relative pronouns. Subordinating conjunctions and relative pronouns are words like because, if, or whenever that signal a relationship between the dependent clause and the independent clause it joins. Dependent clauses need to join with an independent clause to be correct, hence the name dependent.ĭependent clauses are usually easy to recognize because they include a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun. Also known as subordinate clauses, dependent clauses alone are not complete sentences, even though they have both a subject and verb. What are dependent clauses?ĭependent clauses are a little more complicated.
My partner wants to run a marathon together, but I prefer to watch them.
However, you can also combine two or more independent clauses to create a compound sentence. What are independent clauses?īecause an independent clause contains both a subject and a verb, a single independent clause is a simple sentence, the most basic type of sentence. If the clause alone is not a complete sentence, it is a dependent clause. If the clause alone is a complete sentence, it is an independent clause. A clause is a group of words that contains at least one subject and at least one verb, but clauses can be either complete or incomplete sentences, depending on their wording and punctuation. Independent and dependent clauses are the two main categories of clause. Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly What are dependent and independent clauses?