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 ...

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 ...

and complex close complex sentenceA sentence that contains a main (independent) clause and one or more subordinate (dependent) clauses which add extra detail or information to the main clause..

An independent clause close independent clauseAn independent clause is a group of words that work by themselves as a sentence. is a group of words that work by themselves as a sentence.

Remember: an independent clause is the ‘main clause’ that can stand alone, unlike the dependent which works with the independent counterpart: Ade greeted me … (Independent) … when we met ...