![]() ![]() The dependent clause can come before the independent one, after it, or it can come in the middle of it, interrupting the independent clause. We usually pair them with at least one independent clause and create sentences. While we can use dependent clauses as sentence fragments, most of the time we don’t. Students are taught to not use sentence fragments, but fiction writers use them all the time for effect and rhythm. A short list of subordinating conjunctions:Ī subordinate clause that stands alone is a sentence fragment. These are incomplete sentences because they don’t convey a complete thought.īecause the ball belonged to Alice, what?Īfter the ball rolled down the hill, what happened?Īn adverbial clause often starts with a subordinating conjunction. It depends on other sentence elements (typically an independent clause) to give it meaning. It does have a subject and a verb, but it doesn’t convey a complete thought. It has a subject and a verb and conveys a complete thought.Ī dependent or subordinate clause can’t stand alone as a sentence. I’m going to focus on adverbial clauses since they’re usually the ones that cause the most problems and because the example in the reader’s question uses an adverbial clause.Īn independent or main clause can stand alone as a sentence. This is a great question because it delves into specifics of comma use with dependent clauses.īecause there are several types of dependent clauses-adjective, adverbial, and noun-this topic could get wordy if I tried to cover all of them. ” part of the sentence around, why is it considered essential? For instance, why would there not be a comma before after in The police officer pleaded guilty to careless driving after crashing his car into a fence, yet there would be a comma before after in the sentence The police officer, after cashing his car into a fence, pleaded guilty to careless driving. I’m having trouble knowing when to put a comma before a subordinate clause. Because the topic covers several issues and because I was already working on one of the sub-topics for another article, I thought I’d answer the question in an article rather than in the comment section. Jby Fiction Editor Beth Hill last modified August 1, 2014Ī reader asked about commas with subordinate-also known as dependent-clauses.
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