Independent and Dependent Clauses

What is a clause?  A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb. Nice try, but no…

Reminder about subjects and verbs in sentences… Mrs. Riek’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.

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…  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. While Saw 5 is a great movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street is terrifying. Subordinate ClauseIndependent Clause

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. *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.* I took my girlfriend to see Saw 5 because the movie is so romantic. Independent Clause Subordinate Clause

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. *Notice that we use a comma when combining two independent clauses with a conjunction.* Saw 5 is a great movie, and my girlfriend never called back! Independent Clause Coordinating 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 Josh started crying.

Videos for Review  =G9fpPJ5bgJs =G9fpPJ5bgJs  =bCZ2FY5xOto&app=desktop =bCZ2FY5xOto&app=desktop