Question

independent and dependent clauses

Answers

GPT-4o mini
Independent and dependent clauses are two fundamental components of sentence structure in English.

### Independent Clauses
An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a predicate and expresses a complete thought. It can stand alone as a sentence.

**Examples:**
- "I enjoy reading."
- "The sun sets in the west."
- "She went to the market."

### Dependent Clauses
A dependent clause, on the other hand, also contains a subject and a predicate but does not express a complete thought. It cannot stand alone as a sentence and often begins with a subordinating conjunction (e.g., because, although, since, if) or a relative pronoun (e.g., who, which, that).

**Examples:**
- "Although I enjoy reading..."
- "Because the sun sets in the west..."
- "When she went to the market..."

### Combining Clauses
Dependent clauses are often combined with independent clauses to form complex sentences.

**Example:**
- "Although I enjoy reading, I don’t have much time for it."
- "The sun sets in the west because it is the direction of the Earth's rotation."
- "She went to the market when it opened."

In these examples, the independent clauses can stand alone, while the dependent clauses add additional information but cannot stand alone.