What is an independent clause? All you need to know about independent clauses

Independent clause is one of the common English structures in foreign language acquisition and daily communication. Once you grasp independent clauses, creating compound sentences becomes simpler, which can help boost your score in IELTS speaking and writing or other foreign language tests.

I. What is an independent clause?

Dependent and independent clauses are 2 main types of clauses that form a sentence. To differentiate between independent and dependent clauses, let’s join PREP to discover the definition as well as the usage of independent clauses.

Independent clauses express a complete idea, play the role of a single sentence, or become a part of a multi-clause sentence.

An independent clause contains two main elements: a subject that performs the action and a predicate (a verb and other accompanying information) that describes the action or state of the subject.

Below are some examples of independent clauses: 

• My little sister loves Blackpink. 
• The little cat wants to play with the ball.

II. How to combine 2 independent clauses in English

Every independent clause can stand alone as a simple sentence when it's on its own. When we link independent clauses, they combine to create a compound sentence. How do we connect independent clauses to create this compound structure? There are three methods to join two independent clauses together:

• Semicolon
• Coordinators  
• Conjunctive adverbs

Let's take a closer look at the detailed usages of independent clauses.

1. Combine two independent clauses with a semicolon

Two independent clauses can combine to create a compound sentence by a semicolon. The general structure is as follows:

Independent clause 1 ; + Independent clause 2

Note: When you want to combine 2 independent clauses, use a semicolon (;) instead of a comma (,). Otherwise, improper punctuation in a complex sentence can lead to comma splices.

Examples: 

• The ocean is crystal-clear; the sky is blue.
• My cat eats a lot; she asks for food every 2 hours.

2. Combine two independent clauses by a coordinator 

Coordinators combine two or more than two words, phrases or independent clauses into compound sentences. In such sentences, the verbs of two clauses that need combining have the same structure.

Here are the 7 basic coordinators in English that PREP wants students to be familiar with:

3. Combine two independent clauses with a conjunctive adverb

Conjunctive adverbs play the role of connecting two independent clauses together and help semantically link the two clauses. The general structure used to connect two clauses using a conjunctive adverb is:

Independent clause 1; conjunctive adverb, independent clause 2.

When using conjunctive adverbs to join two independent clauses, it's important to remember that a semicolon (;) should come before the conjunctive adverb and a comma (,) should follow it.

III. Common errors when using independent clauses

When putting the theory of independent clauses into practice in writing, students still commonly make a few inevitable errors. Let's go over some of the most common mistakes together with PREP:

1. Comma splice

Connecting two independent clauses with a comma is known as a comma splice. You can often fix it by changing the comma (,) to a period (.) to make each clause its own complete sentence. Or you can add a conjunctive adverb between the two independent clauses to properly connect them. For example:

• Wrong sentence: I like this movie, it is very interesting.
• Correction:
  • I like this movie. It is very interesting. 
  • I like this movie because it is very interesting. 

2. Improper Clause Combination

Improper clause combinations occur when two independent clauses are not separated by any type of punctuation mark. This error can sometimes be fixed by adding a period, semicolon, or rewriting the clauses as a compound or complex sentence. For example:

• Wrong sentence: My brother is intelligent I’ve learned a lot from him.
• Correction:
  • My brother is intelligent. I’ve learned a lot from him.
  • My brother is intelligent; moreover, I’ve learned a lot from him.

IV. Exercises on independent clauses

To memorize independent clauses’ usage and categorization, let’s practice by the following exercise on dependent and independent clauses.

Exercise: Identify the errors in the following sentences:

• Jane will make some cakes, we arrive.
• Alex could not read the news clearly he took out his glasses.
• They were having breakfast, the children were playing outside.
• I could not travel in the morning, the weather was bad.
• Mary decides to do something you will not change her mind.

Keys:

• Comma splice. Correction: Jane will make some cake when we arrive.
• Improper Clause Combination. Correction: Alex could not read the news clearly so he took out his glasses.
• Comma splice. Correction: While they were having breakfast, the children were playing outside.
• Comma splice. Correction: I could not travel in the morning because the weather was bad.
• Improper Clause Combination. Correction: Once Mary decides to do something, you will not change her mind.

The information mentioned above is what PREP aims to share about independent clauses. Besides, you may refer to other common structures to have a solid foundation for learning and communication.