CLAUSE INDEPENDENT CLAUSE WHAT ARE CLAUSES Clauses are
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CLAUSE INDEPENDENT CLAUSE
WHAT ARE CLAUSES? Clauses are the building blocks of sentences. A clause is a group of words that contains (at least) a subject and a verb. These are clauses: • Ecology is a science • Because pollution causes cancer • The President visited Lombok last year These are NOT clauses: • to protect the environment • The king of lion • Driving cars on freeways
INDEPENDENT CLAUSE An independent clause contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. It can stand alone as a sentence by itself. An independent clause is formed with: Subject + Verb (+ complement) Students normally spend four years in college. I will declare my major now, but I may change it later. Many international students experience culture shock when they come to the United States.
DEPENDENT CLAUSE A dependent clause begins with a subordinator such as when, while, if, that, or who. A dependent clause does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone as a sentence by itself. A dependent clause is formed with: Subordinator + subject + verb (+ complement). . . although students normally spend four years in college. . . if I declare my major now. . . when they come to the United States. . . that the experiment was a success. . .
CLAUSE CONNECTORS In this discussion, two groups of words are used to connect clauses in order to form different kinds of sentences. They are subordinators (subordinating conjunctions), and coordinator (coordinating conjunctions).
SUBORDINATORS (SUBORDINATING CONJUNTIONS)
COORDINATORS (COORDINATING CONJUNTIONS)
