Clauses and

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Language Network
Clauses and Sentence Structure
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Clauses and Sentence Structure
Heres the Idea Independent Clauses Subordinate
Clauses
Why It Matters
Practice and Apply
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Heres the Idea
Clause
A clause is a group of words that contains a
subject and a verb.
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Heres the Idea
Your genes carry your familys genetic history.
CLAUSE
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Heres the Idea
Clauses add details.
Clauses show relationships between ideas.
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Heres the Idea
Independent Clause
An independent (or main) clause expresses a
complete thought and can stand alone as a
sentence.
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Heres the Idea
Genes contain the code for your physical
appearance.
INDEPENDENT CLAUSE
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Heres the Idea
Subordinate Clause
A subordinate (or dependent) clause contains a
subject and a verb but does not express a
complete thought and cannot stand alone as a
sentence.
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Heres the Idea
Subordinate clauses are introduced by words like
if, because, that, when, and since.
because inherited genes often skip a generation
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
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Heres the Idea
By itself, a subordinate clause is a sentence
fragment.
that determines your height
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
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Heres the Idea
For a complete thought to be expressed, a
subordinate clause must be part of a sentence
that contains an independent clause.
INDEPENDENT CLAUSE
Genes contain the code that determines your
height.
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
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Why It Matters
Recognizing independent and subordinate clauses
will help you avoid a kind of fragment
a subordinate clause accidentally written as a
sentence.
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Why It Matters
Identify the subordinate clauses that act as
fragments.
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Why It Matters
To fix these fragments, join them with
independent clauses.
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Practice and Apply
Join this subordinate clause with an independent
clause.
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Practice and Apply
Join this subordinate clause with an independent
clause.
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Practice and Apply
Join this subordinate clause with an independent
clause.
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Practice and Apply
Join this subordinate clause with an independent
clause.
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Clauses and Sentence Structure
Adjective Clauses
Heres the Idea Adjective Clauses Essential
Adjective Clauses Nonessential Adjective Clauses
Why It Matters
Practice and Apply
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Heres the Idea
Subordinate clauses can be adjective clauses.
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Heres the Idea
Adjective Clause
An adjective clause is a subordinate clause that
is used as an adjective to modify a noun or a
pronoun.
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Heres the Idea
What does each adjective clause modify?
A family is more than a group of people who are
related.
It was she who started our family tree.
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Heres the Idea
An adjective clause is introduced by a relative
pronoun or by a relative adverb.
that, who, whom, whose, which
where, when, why
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Heres the Idea
Essential Adjective Clause
An essential (or restrictive) adjective clause
provides information that is necessary to
identify the preceding noun or pronoun.
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Heres the Idea
ESSENTIAL ADJECTIVE CLAUSE
Someone who is your first cousin is the child of
your uncle or aunt.
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Heres the Idea
Nonessential Adjective Clause
A nonessential (or nonrestrictive) adjective
clause adds additional information about a noun
or pronoun whose meaning is already clear.
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Heres the Idea
NONESSENTIAL ADJECTIVE CLAUSE
Irene, who is your first cousin, was married last
fall.
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Heres the Idea
Use commas to set off a nonessential clause. The
commas separate nonessential information from the
main idea of the sentence.
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Why It Matters
Adjective clauses can supply details necessary to
explain, support, and connect your ideas.
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Why It Matters
Adjective clauses help to avoid repetition.
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Why It Matters
Join these sentences with independent clauses.
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Practice and Apply
Write the adjective clause, along with the word
or words it modifies.
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Practice and Apply
Write the adjective clause, along with the word
or words it modifies.
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Practice and Apply
Combine these sentences by changing one into an
adjective clause.
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Practice and Apply
Combine these sentences by changing one into an
adjective clause.