| Exemplary Prose: |
| Essential Writing Skills in Context |
Clauses
A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb. There are five clauses that you should be aware of:
1. Coordinate clauses have the same rank and are connected by a coordinating conjunction.
It started to rain, so we left the football game.
2. Dependent clauses (also known as subordinate) do not make sense when standing alone.
He watches the late news before he goes to bed.
3. Independent clauses (also called principal or main) are those which would make complete sense if left standing alone.
He watches the late news before going to bed.
4. Nonrestrictive clauses could be omitted without changing the meaning; they are surrounded by commas.
Sylvia, who reads a great deal, has a large vocabulary.
5. Restrictive clauses are essential to the meaning (i.e., could not be left out without changing the meaning of the sentence).
People who read a great deal have large vocabularies.