A dependent clause cannot stand alone, though they often contain both a subject and a verb. Where independent clauses express complete thoughts, dependent clauses do not, and left on their own, ...

An independent clause consists of a subject (e.g. “the dog”) and a verb (e.g. “barked”) creating a complete thought. The dog barked. A dependent clause cannot stand alone even if it contains a subject ...

Many sentences may contain two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses joined with appropriate conjunctions and/or punctuation. Combining two or more sentences without appropriate ...

For the best experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Last week’s column that discussed the use of comas, semi and full colons, and mentioned ...

Subordinate clauses are sometimes known as 'dependent clauses' because they need the main part of the sentence to make sense. They don’t make complete sense on their own. For example ...