⚠️CRASH COURSE ENGLISH⚠️
(with Prof. Kai🤪)
LESSON 1: Independent

vs. Dependent Clauses
LEVEL: Beginner/Early Intermediate

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Before we can talk about different kinds of sentences, we need to establish the differences between independent and dependent clauses, the building blocks of a sentence.

An INDEPENDENT CLAUSE has a subject and a verb. It expresses a complete thought, meaning that it's a sentence that can stand alone and make sense. It can have a compound subject and/or verb.
🔸️Example: Kate studied in the coffee shop.
In this example, you can see that there's a subject (Kate), a verb (studied), and the sentence expresses a complete thought.
-->More examples of independent clauses:
John doesn't like chocolate.
She told me she wanted to go see the play.
Amy and James both play the tuba in the school band.

A DEPENDENT CLAUSE has a subject and a verb (and can have a compound subject and/or verb), but does NOT express a complete thought. It can't be a sentence because it doesn't make sense by itself, so it has to be paired up with an independent clause (more on this in a future lesson).
🔸️Example: When Kate studied in the coffee shop...*
In this example, there's still a subject and a verb ("Kate" and "studied"). But it doesn't express a complete thought. What happened when Kate studied in the coffee shop?
A dependent clause is signaled by a dependent marker. A dependent marker is like a word that waves his hands and says, "Look, I'm a dependent clause!" To see a list of common dependent markers, see the picture provided in this post!
*I'll end dependent clauses in the examples with an ellipse (...), but in the Test Yourself section, they'll end with periods.
-->More examples of dependent clauses:
Because the weather was rainy...
Even if she had said that...
Although she is allergic to corn...

Combining clauses to make sentences will be covered in the next lesson!
Please see comments for the Test Yourself section, and go ahead and ask questions!