Back to: English Language Primary 6
Welcome to today’s class!!
We are excited to have you join our class!!
In today’s English class, we will be learning more about Structure: Clauses
Clauses
When we talk about Clauses in the English language, we are talking about one of the important things a student must know. Why is this? Clauses are usually found in our conversations.
What Is A Clause?
A clause is a group of words that contains at least one subject and at least one verb, but clauses can be either complete or incomplete sentences, depending on their wording and punctuation.
Independent and dependent clauses are the two main groups of clauses. If the clause alone is a complete sentence, it is an independent clause. If the clause alone is not a complete sentence, it is a dependent clause.
What Are Independent Clauses?
Because an independent clause contains both a subject and a verb, a single independent clause is a simple sentence, the most basic type of sentence. However, you can also combine two or more independent clauses to create a compound sentence.
For example:
My uncle wants to run a marathon together, but I prefer to watch them.
What Are Dependent Clauses?
Dependent clauses are a little more different. Also known as subordinate clauses, dependent clauses alone are not complete sentences, even though they have both a subject and verb.
Dependent clauses need to join with an independent clause to be complete, hence the name dependent.
Dependent clauses are usually easy to recognize because they include a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun.
Here are some Independent and dependent clause examples
- Independent: Next Tuesday will be my first day at my new school.
- Dependent: If the examination goes well, next Tuesday will be my first day at my new school.
- Independent: You have to finish your food, and then you can eat ice cream.
- Dependent: You have to finish your food before you can eat ice cream.
- Independent: My car broke down less than a mile from my home. It didn’t pass inspection.
- Dependent: My car, which didn’t pass inspection, broke down less than a mile from my home.
In summary, Independent and dependent clauses are the two main types of clause in English, and every clause is either one or the other.
The difference is that an independent clause can work alone as a complete sentence, but a dependent clause also known as a subordinate clause needs to join with an independent clause to form a complete sentence.
Evaluation
What is a clause?
Reading Assignment
What makes Clauses important in the English language?
Weekend Assignment
- List the types of Clauses we have in English Language
- Give three examples each
We hope you enjoyed today’s class. In our next class, we will be learning about Speech Work
Let us know your thoughts and questions in the comment section, and we will attend to them as fast as we can.
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