Intermediate English Grammar for ESL Learners - Robin Torres-Gouzerh 2016

Dependent clauses
22 Clauses

A dependent clause cannot stand on its own and make complete sense. It must be connected to an independent clause. Consider the following examples, which sound strange when they stand alone; they are dependent on another clause to complete their meaning.

Although he likes it a lot.

When we visited Portugal.

Since he arrived here last June.

While the baby was still asleep.

These clauses have a subject and a verb, but they do not express a complete idea. A dependent clause, by itself, is called a sentence fragment.

You can often recognize a dependent clause by the presence of a subordinating conjunction. “Because he is on time” is a dependent clause, whereas “He is on time” is an independent clause.

The following sentences combine the dependent clauses in the examples above with independent clauses to make complete sentences.

Although he likes it a lot, he won’t spend that much for the car.

When we visited Portugal, we came upon a beautiful mountain village.

Since he arrived here last June, he has refused to go out and find a job.

John and Mary cleaned up the family room while the baby was still asleep.

Following is a list of the most common conjunctions that could begin a dependent clause.

The relative pronouns who, which, and that also introduce a dependent clause.

Exercise 22.1 Underline the independent clause in each sentence.

1. If Mary gets here early, she will be able to eat some dessert.

2. Before he went to his class, Marco picked up something from the office.

3. William read the cover story of The Economist while he waited for lunchtime.

4. Barbara laughed when she heard the joke.

5. Paul watched as the woman slapped the teenager who had insulted her.

6. Even though alcohol is bad for your liver, many people enjoy drinking a lot of it.