Independent / Main and Dependent clauses

What is a clause? A clause is a verb and its subject and complements. John cooked dinner. one clause – pattern 7 John cooked dinner and Mary gave the kids a bath. two clauses joined by conjunction and; the first is pattern 7 and the second is pattern 8 All these above are independent clauses

John cooked dinner 7 independent and Mary gave bath 8 independent kids a the

Subordinate or Dependent clauses A verb + subject + complements unit can be dependent on another clause. John, who is a master chef, cooked dinner. “who is a master chef” is a pattern 3 clause which works as an adjectival modifying “John” in the main clause which is, of course, still pattern 7. Before he cooked dinner, John became a chef. The first clause is an adverbial modifying “became” in the main clause. The first clause is still pattern 7 and the main clause is pattern 5.

John cooked dinner 7 independent or main 3 dependent who is chef a or relative who is chef a master

he cooked dinner 7 Before John became chef 5 independent a dependent or subordinate Before John became chef 5 independent or main a

Still more Dependent clauses A verb + subject + complements unit can be embedded into the main clause or another clause. What John cooked today was dinner. The first clause is pattern 7 and it is a noun clause acting as the subject of the main clause, a pattern 3 clause. She argued that John had not cooked dinner. The main clause and the dependent clause are both 7

John cooked What 7 dependent today was dinner 3 independent or main

7 that John had cooked dinner not She argued 7 dependent independent or main