The correct response is:
A dependent clause cannot stand alone in a sentence, but a phrase can.
This statement is accurate in explaining the difference between a phrase and a dependent clause. A dependent clause includes a subject and a verb but cannot function as a complete sentence on its own, while phrases do not provide a complete thought and do not require subject-verb functionality to exist grammatically. However, the first half of the statement is misleading, because phrases cannot stand alone as complete sentences either. So this option doesn't fully convey the true distinctions.
The best understanding is:
- A phrase is a group of words that does not contain a subject-verb pair and does not express a complete thought.
- A dependent clause contains a subject and a verb but starts with a subordinating conjunction, making it unable to stand alone as a complete sentence.
Unfortunately, none of the options capture the precise distinctions clearly.