principal clause
Americannoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A principal clause is sometimes defined as "one that can stand alone," and is therefore independent of the rest of the sentence.
From Composition-Rhetoric by Brooks, Stratton D.
All of the modifying clauses must be gathered together either before or after the principal clause.
From Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence A Manual for Reporters, Correspondents, and Students of Newspaper Writing by Hyde, Grant Milnor
May and or but be used to join a dependent clause to a principal clause?
From Practical Grammar and Composition by Wood, Thomas
Show by numerous examples from this selection that the dependent clause of a sentence takes the rising Inflection—whilst the principal clause takes the falling.
From The Ontario High School Reader by Marty, A.E.
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
