principal clause

American  

noun

1. the main clause.

---

Example Sentences

A complex sentence contains one principal clause and one or more subordinate clauses.

From Business English A Practice Book by Buhlig, Rose

So, in every conditional sentence, the prot'asis, or condition, differs considerably from the apod'osis, or principal clause, even where both are expressed as facts.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

The auxiliary, then, in a principal clause would be will.

From Practical Grammar and Composition by Wood, Thomas

In Principal Clauses.—The principal clause in a conditional statement also takes the subjunctive form when it refers to what is future and contingent, and when it refers to what is past and uncertain, or denied.

From The Verbalist A Manual Devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and the Wrong Use of Words and to Some Other Matters of Interest to Those Who Would Speak and Write with Propriety. by Osmun, Thomas Embly

How could a predicate become associated with its subject, or a principal clause with its subordinate clause, if they were in separate consciousnesses, and how could the conclusion be drawn from them?

From Naturalism And Religion by Otto, Rudolf