Dependent clauses contain a verb and subject but not a complete thought. They require an independent clause to form a sentence and often start with prepositions. Marker words like “after” and “unless” make clauses dependent, and they can be linked to independent clauses using commas, coordinating conjunctions, or semicolons. Common mistakes include using sentence fragments and comma splicing.
A dependent clause is a part of a grammatical sentence that contains both a verb and a subject, but does not convey a complete thought. While an independent clause is sufficient to form a sentence on its own, dependent clauses must be linked to independent clauses to form sentences. Also called subordinate clauses, they often start with words like prepositions that indicate their dependence on other elements of a sentence. When used correctly, dependent clauses are useful for varying sentence length and writing style.
Often, this type of clause contains a marker word at the beginning, such as “after”, “although”, “before”, “unless” and “until”. These marker words are often, but not always, prepositions, and make the clause dependent on another thought to complete it. For example, the clause “When the sun sets over the city in the evening” requires more information to answer what happens when this event occurs. An independent clause can usually be made into a dependent clause by adding one of these marker words to the beginning.
As a rule, dependent clauses must be linked to independent clauses to be transformed into complete sentences, which can be realized in various ways. A writer may use a comma to do this, for example: “As the sun sets over the city in the evening, shadows appear on the sidewalk.” Also, writers may use a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction, such as “and,” “but,” “for,” “or,” “nor,” “so,” or “yet.” An example of this type of connection would be “He wanted to go out, but it was too cold”, where the second clause is a dependent clause. A dependent clause can also be linked using a semicolon and an independent marker word, such as “also”, “furthermore”, “however”, and “furthermore”.
There are many mistakes writers often make when referring to dependent clauses in a sentence. One of the most common is the sentence fragment, where this clause is misspelled as a complete sentence, as in, “Because it was too cold outside.” Another common mistake is comma splicing, where two independent clauses are separated by a comma when a dependent clause is needed. For example, the sentence “He wanted to go out, it was too cold” contains two independent clauses. Inserting “but” after the comma transforms the second into a dependent clause and completes the thought in a grammatically correct way.
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