Clauses

Handwritten text reading 'Although it was raining, it was still a nice day.'

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What exactly is a clause?

A clause is a thought given shape in the form of words on a page or screen. In more technical terms, a clause is a group of words that contain a subject (which is always a noun of some sort, be it common, proper or otherwise) and a predicate (most commonly a verb, but not always. More on that in a different post!). They come in two major types – independent (also known as a main clause) and dependent (also known as a subordinate clause).

An independent clause is a complete thought. Something like, ‘I turned on a movie,’ or ‘I wish I had more chocolate.’ It then follows that if an independent clause is a complete thought, a dependent one is incomplete; it requires an independent one to complete it. Examples of that might look like, ‘Since I was bored,’ or ‘With my ice cream.’

At first glance, you might think those work perfectly fine on their own. After all, you might say something similar in a conversation. However, if you said those out loud without any context, they sound kind of weird, don’t they? Sort of like you walked into the middle of a conversation. That’s because they’re missing some information. Because what sucked? What do you want with your ice cream?

So, if a dependent clause sounds so weird on its own, why does it exist at all?

It exists to add detail to an independent clause, of course! What did you do to kill that boredom? You turned on a movie, of course! Chocolate is great, but what’s better than chocolate? Chocolate with ice cream!

Joining Clauses

Clauses are typically joined together using an appropriate punctuation mark (either a comma or a semicolon in most cases) and a subordinating conjunction (e.g. because, if, since, though) or a coordinating conjunction (e.g. for, and, but, so). Using one of the previous examples, that might look something like: ‘Since I was bored, I turned on a movie.’

Sometimes, you might not need any punctuation to join two clauses together; you just need to make sure they’re in the correct order. In this instance, the independent clause always comes before the dependent one. Using the other example from before, that might look something like: ‘I wish I had more chocolate with my ice cream.’

It doesn’t always have to be an independent clause joining a dependent one though! You can join two independent clauses together too! When you want to do that, you’ll need a punctuation mark (either a comma or a semicolon) and a coordinating conjunction. The two clauses still have to be related so it makes sense as one sentence though. If they’re too different, like the previous examples of independent clauses in this article, it will sound like they should be two separate sentences, not one.

Let's wrap up with a review

An independent clause contains a noun and a predicate (usually a verb) and can stand on its own as a sentence. A dependent clause also contains a noun and a predicate but needs an independent clause to support it and provide context. You can join two clauses by using a comma or a semicolon and an appropriate conjunction – subordinating for dependent clauses and coordinating for independent clauses. If you’re joining an independent clause to a dependent one, you can skip the comma or semicolon if the dependent clause comes after the independent one.

Now you know the basics of clauses! Go forth and do your best!