Dependent Clause
Dependent Clause :
Phrases must be carefully distinguished from clauses. The difference is that a clause contains a subject and a predicate and a phrase does not.
A clause is a group of words that forms part of a sentence and that contains a subject and a predicate.
The lightning flashed | and | the thunder roared.
The train started | when the bell rang.
Each of these sentences contains two clauses. But the relation between the clauses in the first sentence is very different from that between the clauses in the second.
In the first example, each of the two clauses makes a separate and distinct statement and might stand by itself as a simple sentence….that is….as a sentence having but one subject and one predicate. These clauses are joined by the conjunction AND which is not a part of either. No doubt the speaker feels that there is some relation in thought between the two statements or he would not have put them together as clauses in the same sentence. But there is nothing in the form of expression to show what that relation is. In other words, the two clauses are grammatically independent, for neither of them modifies (or affects the meaning of) the other. The clauses are therefore said to be coordinate…..that is of the same order or rank and the sentence is called compound sentence .
In the second example, on the contrary, the relation between the two clauses is indicated with precision. One clause (the train started) makes the main statement. It expresses the chief fact. Hence it is called the main (or principal) clause. The other clause (when the bell rang) is added because the speaker wishes to modify the main verb (started) by defining the time of the action. This clause, then, is used as a part of speech. Its function is the same as that of an adverb (promptly) or an adverbial phrase (on the stroke of the bell). For this purpose alone it exists and not as an independent statement. Hence it is called a dependent clause or subordinate clause. Because it depends (that is….hangs) upon the main clause and so occupies a lower or subordinate rank in the sentence. When thus constructed, a sentence is said to be complex sentence .
An ordinary compound sentence is made by joining two or more simple sentences….each of which thus becomes an independent coördinate clause.
In the same way we may join two or more complex sentences, using them as clauses to make one compound sentence.
The train started when the bell rang | and | Tom watched until the last car disappeared.
This sentence is manifestly compound, for it consists of two coördinate clauses (the train started when the bell rang) (Tom watched until the last car disappeared) joined by and. Each of these two clauses is itself complex, for each could stand by itself as a complex sentence.
Similarly, a complex and a simple sentence may be joined as coördinate clauses to make a compound sentence.
The train started when the bell rang | and | Tom gazed after it in despair.
Such a sentence, which is compound in its structure, but in which one or more of the coördinate clauses are complex is called a compound complex sentence.
A clause is a group of words that forms part of a sentence and that contains a subject and a predicate.
A clause used as a part of speech is called a subordinate clause. All other clauses are said to be independent.
Clauses of the same order or rank are said to be coördinate.
Sentences may be simple, compound, or complex.
1. A simple sentence has but one subject and one predicate, either or both of which may be compound.
2. A compound sentence consists of two or more independent coördinate clauses, which may or may not be joined by conjunctions.
3. A complex sentence consists of two or more clauses, one of which is independent and the rest subordinate.
A compound sentence in which one or more of the coördinate clauses are complex is called a compound complex sentence.
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