Dependent and Independent Clauses

Independent (mama) clauses - They have a subject and a verb, and they make sense.
Example: George went to school.

Every good sentence has one or more independent clauses.

Dependent (baby) clauses – They have a subject and a verb, but they are missing
meaning. They need a mama clause!

Example: After he finished work.

Dependent clauses have a dependent word (also known as subordinating

conjunctions) : after, before, because, as soon as, if.
“After he finished work.” is dependent because of the word ‘after.’

To make the dependent clause complete, we need an independent clause. (Baby

needs a mama.)

Example: George went to school after he finished work.

* Use only one baby clause in each sentence. Sentences with more than one
baby clause are difficult to read.

**If the independent clause is first, you don’t need a comma. In other words, if
the connecting word is between the two clauses, you don’t need a
comma.
**If the dependent clause is first, you need to put a comma at the end of the
dependent clause. In other words, “Baby then mama? Use a comma!”

Notice the punctuation in the following sentences:

After you write a sentence, you can decide on the punctuation.

You can decide on the punctuation after you write the sentence.
Exercise A Directions: Circle the dependent words in each sentence. Then draw two
lines under the independent (mama) clauses and one line under the dependent (baby)
clauses.

1. Yesterday Meseret was late because her baby threw up in the car.

2. Azhar will come to class if she doesn’t stay home with her daughter.

3. After Alex came to the United States, he looked for a job.

4. Hidat saw her classmate as soon as she arrived in class.

5. Mahdi met his mother-in-law after he met his wife.

6. Heen wanted to be a dancer after she watched Dancing with the Stars.

7. Because Gina didn’t have a job, she didn’t pay her phone bill.

8. Yelena became a nurse because her family needed the money.

9. Before Rinzin left for work, she ate a bagel.

10. Azieb did the homework before she gave it to the teacher.

Exercise B Directions: Read each sentence. Decide if it needs a comma. If it does, put
the comma in the correct place.

1. When Kira has a test she feels anxious.

2. He goes for a walk when he feels stress.

3. When you feel nervous one strategy that helps is to talk to a friend.
 4. Sometimes you cry because you feel angry.

5. Because she has insomnia she is tired at work quite often.

6. When you feel depressed you should do one of your hobbies.

Exercise C Directions: On a piece of paper, write the sentences from exercise B again,
but change the order of the clauses. Use the correct punctuation.

Example: George went to school after he finished work.

After he finished work, George went to school.

1. When Kira has a test she feels anxious. Kira feels anxious when she has a test.

2. He goes for a walk when he feels stress. When he feels stress, he goes for a

walk.

3. When you feel nervous one strategy that helps is to talk to a friend. One

strategy that helps is to talk to a friend when you feel nervous.

4. Sometimes you cry because you feel angry. Because you feel angry, sometimes

you cry.

5. Because she has insomnia she is tired at work quite often. She is tired at work

quite often because she has insomnia.

6. When you feel depressed you should do one of your hobbies. You should do one

of your hobbies when you feel depressed.