Clauses in English
by Independent and dependent clauses.
When you want to extend a sentence to describe a subject one of the best ways is by using clauses. These would be extensions to a sentence that answer questions such as with who, where and when. When these words are used the clause is likely dependent because they cannot stand on their own but if they have a subject, verb and object they can. These would be called independent. An independent clause means no subordinating one. A good organized way of remembering the extra information would be by understanding if the if the word that is being described is a noun, adjective or adverb. Here are some tips on how to remember the form.
In the case of using a noun, one can think of a small sentence like “Here is a man”. In order to extend it I can use the interrogative word who to extend it, as “Here is a man who plays golf”. The fact that he plays golf tells me about the man and so can be considered as an adjective clause. A similar clause can be made by using which instead of who when choosing an object. In both cases the clause is dependent because it cannot stand on its own when beginning with an interrogative word.
The same rule can be applied to an adjective or adverb clause such as the adjective clause will follow and amplify an adjective and the adverb clause will be more descriptive than the adverb alone.
In a sentence, “He ran quickly.” by explaining why or how he did so, I am amplifying the activity. That can be done by saying, “He ran when he wanted to avoid the traffic.” Here the question word, “when” helps to initiate a group of words or clause that describes the verb.
In a sentence, She learnt guitar, there is no need to expand but if one wants to describe the conditions of learning guitar, one could say something like, “ She learnt how playing guitar would make her feel better.” The part of the sentence initiated by the how helps to answer the question “what did she learn”.
To summarise, an independent clause is not going to depend on another part of a sentence for it’s meaning, in other words it can stand on its own as in “The club members contributed their membership fees.” When the clause is supplying an explanation for something else, then it cannot be used on its own and so is dependent.
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