Subordinate Clauses

Complete, or Incomplete...

Provided that you understand…
Understand what?

A subordinate clause is also known as a dependent clause because it cannot stand alone as a complete sentence. They provide additional, non-essential, information to the sentence that complements or further modifies the sentence's main clause.

Okay. That sounds great. But I'm still confused.

A Complete Sentence

First, let's define a complete sentence. A complete sentence contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought.

John smiled.

John is the subject, smiled is the verb, and it is a complete thought.

She hesitated.

She is the subject, hesitated is the verb, and it is a complete thought.

Fun fact!! The shortest complete sentence in the English language: I am.

I am.

I is the subject, am is the verb, and it is, technically, a complete thought.

Okay, so some will argue (and Google's answer, too) that the shortest sentence in the English language is: Go! However, that is only because the subject is "understood" or "implied".

A Complete Thought

So why do we keep mentioning "a complete thought"? Because you can still have a subject (or noun) and a verb without it being a complete thought.

Because John smiled.

Explanation: Because John smiled, what?? This contains the same subject and verb as above but does not convey a complete thought.

Although she hesitated.

Explanation: Although she hesitated, what?? This contains the same subject and verb as above but does not convey a complete thought.

Subordinate Clauses

These are examples of subordinate clauses within a complete sentence. They cannot stand on their own and are providing additional information to the dependent clause.

Because John smiled, she knew that everything was going to be okay.
She enjoyed going although she hesitated initially.

Please note: placement within the sentence does not matter; however:

If the subordinate clause precedes the independent clause, it should be offset with a comma.
If it comes after the independent clause, no comma is needed.
If it is in the middle of the sentence, a pair of offsetting commas are required. This is because the subordinate clause can be removed, and the sentence would still make sense.

She knew, because John smiled, that everything was going to be okay.
I knew that, although she hesitated initially, she enjoyed going.

So how can I spot the difference between a subordinate (or dependent) clause and an independent clause? A subordinate clause does not provide a complete thought and often leaves the reader wondering, "So what happened?" Another clue would be that they begin with a subordinate conjunction or a relative pronoun. Here are a few examples of each:

Subordinate Conjunctions:

after	if	than	where
although	in order that	that	whereas
as	once	though	wherever
because	provided that	unless	whether
before	rather than	until	while
even if	since	when	why
even though	so that	whenever

Relative Pronouns:

that	who	whose
which	whoever	whosoever
whichever	whom	whomever

So now you should be able to spot a subordinate clause, right? Because I outlined them for you.

What?? You mean that's not a complete sentence? But it has a subject (I) and a verb (outlined)…