An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought. While a dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb but does not express a complete thought.
A clause is a cluster of words that contain a subject and a verb/predicate.
It is a part of a sentence and it can either be an independent clause or a dependent clause.
Dependent Clause
A dependent clause refers to a kind of clause that does not express a complete thought.
Dependent clauses look very similar to independent clauses because they both have a subject and a verb, but remember: a dependent clause cannot stand by itself (meaning that it does not make sense alone!).
There are three types of dependent clauses.
Example: Because Andrew was scared, he failed to save his teammate in time. -- Notice that the bold text does not express a complete thought nor make sense.
Independent Clause
An independent clause refers to a kind of clause that expresses a complete thought.
This clause can be a sentence itself and stand alone.
There are four types of independent clauses.
Example: Because Andrew was scared, he failed to save his teammate in time. -- Notice that the bold text expresses a complete thought. Even without the first clause, the text in bold can still stand as a sentence.
If you have a hard time figuring out whether a statement is a dependent clause or an independent clause, try to remove a part of it and see if the remaining part would make sense.
