The practice exercises on this page were developed by Dr. Mary Nielsen, Dean of the Dalton State College School of Liberal Arts.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
An independent clause, also known as a simple sentence, includes a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought.
Example: Juliet, a border collie puppy, prefers to chase apples and pears.
Subject Verb
A dependent clause has a subject and verb, is introduced by a subordinate conjunction or a relative pronoun, but does not express a complete thought. A dependent clause is not a complete sentence.
Example: Because the heavy rains flooded the entrance to the subdivision.
Sub. Conj. Subject Verb
Example: After Laura carefully read the assigned chapter.
Sub. Conj. Subject Verb
Determine whether the underlined word groups are dependent clauses, independent clauses, or not a clause.
1. Although it was raining, Maria went for a jog at Civitan Park.
2. Brianna eats chocolate whenever she gets a poor grade in math.
3. After the flood, the family moved into a temporary shelter.
4. While walking at the park, John saw a raccoon eating potato chips.
5. Students enrolled in bachelor's and associate's degree programs must pass the Regents' Test as a graduation requirement.
6. Students who fail to show up for the Regents' test must enroll in the Regents' remediation courses.
7. When you finish your homework, please take the dog for a walk.
8. After Juan completed the assignment, he swam laps at the gym.
9. Christa left home at 4:00 a.m. since she had to drive to Atlanta for a meeting.
10. Before completing the assignment, Evan decided to eat a quick lunch.