dependent clause

British  

noun

1. grammar another term for subordinate clause

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dependent clause Cultural  

1. A clause that does not stand alone as a sentence but depends on another clause to complete its meaning: “When I get my braces off, I will be very happy.” Dependent clauses are also known as subordinate clauses. (Compare independent clause.)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dependent clause

Or you can combine the shorter sentences into a complex sentence with a dependent clause, as in the second example.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021

Perhaps knowing the difference between a main clause and a dependent clause doesn’t matter so much so long as you can intuit the difference.

From The Guardian ● May 13, 2017

Typically, the first unit is a simple sentence, the second almost any grammatical structure—an appositive, a prepositional phrase, a participle, the second element of a compound verb, a dependent clause.

From Fragments of Ancient Poetry by James MacPherson

Subordinate other ideas by reducing each to a dependent clause, or a phrase, or a word.

From The Century Handbook of Writing by Garland Greever

If the connection is close, the comma is usually omitted, especially when the dependent clause comes last.

From Composition-Rhetoric by Stratton D. Brooks