Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my channel, Sparkle
English, where I teach you how to improve your level of
English. Today is a very important grammar lesson on
the difference between independent clauses and
dependent clauses. In today's lesson, I will teach you what
these are and how to identify an independent and a dependent
clause. At the end of this lesson, we will have a short
quiz. So let's begin. What is an independent clause? An
independent clause is a clause that forms a complete thought.
It can stand alone as a sentence. It contains a
subject and a predicate. So let's look at this sentence.
The teacher prepared an interesting lesson. This has a
subject: the teacher. It has a predicate, which is "prepared
an interesting lesson." And within the predicate, there is
a verb prepared. Now this subject describes who is
performing the action in the sentence. And the predicate is
the part of a sentence or clause that tells us what the
subject is or what it does. So the predicate tells us the
action performed by the subject. The teacher is
performing the action of preparing a lesson. So let's
look at some more examples of independent clauses. The boys
ate pizza for dinner. So when you are trying to determine if
a sentence is an independent clause, ask yourself, is there
a subject? Yes, the boys. Also ask yourself, is there a
predicate or a verb? Yes, there's a predicate: ate pizza
for dinner. The predicate tells us what the subject is
doing: the action performed by the subject, and we have a
verb ate. Now, you also have to ask yourself, does this
sentence make sense by itself? The boys ate pizza for dinner.
Yes, this sentence is a standalone sentence; it forms
a complete thought. So what is an independent clause? Let's
look at this example. We live in a beautiful city. Again, is
there a subject? Yes, the subject is we. Is there a
predicate or a verb? Yes, there is: live in a beautiful
city and the verb live. And does this sentence make sense?
Does it form or express a complete thought? Yes, it
does. So what is a dependent clause? Well, a dependent
clause is part of a sentence that contains a subject and a
verb. However, it does not form a complete thought. And
that's the difference between an independent clause and a
dependent clause. Dependent clauses often start with
subordinating conjunctions, such as, whenever, before,
after, because, while. Let's look at this example of a
dependent clause: when I was a child. Okay, yes, this
contains a subject, the subject is I. It also contains
a predicate and the verb: was a child. However, it begins
with a subordinating conjunction: when. And if you
were talking to a person, and they said, "When I was a
child," that doesn't express a complete thought. You would
say, well, what do you mean? What happened when you were a
child? What are you trying to say? It does not express a
complete thought. We need more information. So to form a
complete sentence, we combine dependent clauses with
independent clauses. When I was a child, I loved going
fishing. Okay, now that makes sense. We have the dependent
clause "when I was a child," and we have the independent
clause, "I loved going fishing." Now, this makes
sense. And usually when we begin a sentence with a
dependent clause, we add a comma before the independent
clause. You can learn more about this in my punctuation
videos. So let's look at some more examples of dependent
clauses. Because he is tired. He is tired without the
subordinating conjunction because, would be an
independent clause. But again, if someone was talking to you,
and they just said, because he is tired, it doesn't make
sense. You need more information. It's not a
complete thought. After we finish basketball practice,
this is another dependent clause. Yes, it has a subject
and it has a predicate, but it begins with a subordinating
conjunction. And so it does not form a complete thought.
It's missing more information. Before I moved to Italy. All
of these begin with subordinating conjunctions.
And all of these are dependent clauses; they do not form a
complete thought. So let's combine independent and
dependent clauses. Grandpa is taking a nap because he is
tired. Grandpa is taking a nap is an independent clause. This
makes sense all by itself. This could be a standalone
sentence. So it's an independent clause. Because he
is tired is a dependent clause. And it begins with the
subordinating conjunction because. After we finish
basketball practice, we should get ice cream. In this case,
we begin with the dependent clause. After we finish
basketball practice, we should get ice cream. Again, we
should get ice cream is an independent clause, it
expresses a complete thought all by itself. Before I moved
to Italy, I lived in a small village in Canada. Again, this
begins with the dependent clause before I moved to
Italy, and this dependent clause is dependent on the
independent clause to make sense. Oftentimes, you can
reverse the order of the dependent and independent
clauses and it still makes sense. You could say, we
should get ice cream after we finish basketball practice. Or
I lived in a small village in Canada before I moved to
Italy. Okay, so now let's do a quiz. I want you to identify
the independent clauses and the dependent clauses. Now
remember, ask yourself, is there a subject is there a
predicate and a verb? And most importantly, does it express a
complete thought? If someone said this clause to you, would
it makes sense alone as a sentence. Number one, we're
going to the cinema tonight. Number two, while I was
studying at university. Number three, we laughed. Number
four, after you get home from church. Number five, whenever
my mom sends me a package in the mail. Number six, the boys
played football with their friends last night. Number
seven, because I am exhausted. Number eight, the children
invented a new game to play at the park.
So the first one is an independent clause. So let's
put IC. It's an independent clause and it is correct.
Number two is a dependent clause. And this would be
incorrect. Number two begins with the subordinating
conjunction while, and it does not express a complete
thought. While I was studying at university. Well, what
happened when you were studying at university? What
else do you want to say? So a dependent clause cannot
function as a standalone sentence. So it would be
incorrect to end this with a period. You would have to add
more information. Number three is an independent clause, and
it is correct. We laughed. Even though it's a short
sentence, it contains the action, the predicate and verb
laughed, and also we the subject. It's correct. Number
four, after you get home from church. This is a dependent
clause It does not express a complete thought and again, it
begins with a subordinating conjunction, which is a clue
of when it's a dependent clause. Number five, also is a
dependent clause and would also be incorrect by itself to
end with a period. Number six is an independent clause. The
boys played football with their friends last night, and
it would be correct as a standalone sentence. Number
seven is a dependent clause and this would be incorrect as
a standalone sentence. It also begins with a subordinating
conjunction because. Now this one can be difficult for some
people because when we are speaking in English, let's say
you asked your friend, why aren't you coming to the
party? They might answer because I'm exhausted. So it's
very common to use this type of dependent clause in casual
conversation, but it is not correct as a standalone
sentence and it is a dependent clause. And finally, number
eight, it is an independent clause and it is correct as a
standalone sentence. It expresses a complete thought.
Okay, so let me know in the comments section how many you
got correct out of eight, what you found difficult, and if
you have any other questions, make sure to ask me in the
comments section of this video. Thank you guys once
again for watching. Make sure to subscribe to my channel for
more English lessons. And you can check out my English
Writing Essentials series and my English Grammar Essentials
series to learn more about English writing skills and
English grammar. Thanks again for watching, and I'll see you
in my next lesson.