Clauses come in two types:  Independent and Dependent. 
REMEMBER:  all clauses have their own subject(s) and verb(s).

Independent:  Independent clauses express a complete thought.

                Examples:     he ran
                                    and he was hungry
                                    the man at the post office opened the front door of the building early just
                                            for me

Dependent:  Dependent clauses do not express a complete thought (but they still have their own
                        subject and verb)
   
                Examples:     because he ran
                                    after he had been to the restaurant
                                    who had never been to another country before

            NOTE:  There are two types of words that create dependent clauses:  Subordinating
                         conjunctions and Relative Pronouns. 

                        Click here to review conjunctions. 

                        The Relative Pronouns are very simple to spot, since there are only five of them: 
                                        who, whose, whom, which, that

Identifying clauses:  Think of clauses as "mini sentences"; each one has it's own subject and verb, and probably several adjectives, a prepositional phrase or two, perhaps a few adverbs, maybe a conjunction.  Also recall our rules for how to join clauses together.

Other Options
return to my homepage
email me with any questions.