Flashcard 15 - High School English I: Writing Flashcard Set for the STAAR test

dependent

To be an independent clause, a clause must have a subject, a verb, and express a complete thought. It can stand alone as its own complete sentence. A dependent clause, however, is missing one of those three key ingredients and cannot stand alone. In this case, the clause doesn’t express a complete thought and the reader is left wondering what will happen “even if she waits for him for hours in the rain.”