while Otis was sitting on the dock of the bay

Question

5 points
Independent Clause
Subordinate Clause

Answer 1

In the phrase "while Otis was sitting on the dock of the bay," we can identify the following:

• Subordinate Clause: "while Otis was sitting on the dock of the bay" is a subordinate clause because it cannot stand alone as a complete sentence. It begins with the subordinating conjunction "while," indicating that it depends on additional information to form a full thought.

• Independent Clause: There is no independent clause present in the provided phrase. An independent clause would contain a subject and a verb and could stand alone as a complete sentence (e.g., "Otis was relaxing").

If you would like to create an independent clause to go along with it, you could say something like, "Otis was dreaming of the ocean while he was sitting on the dock of the bay." Here, "Otis was dreaming of the ocean" is the independent clause.