Independent and Dependent Clauses on Legacy GMAT
Legacy GMAT Notice: From our Legacy GMAT archive (pre-2024). Sentence Correction is no longer assessed. Retained for reader interest. For modern prep, select the GMAT Concept Mastery Course and 15 GMAT Adaptive Mock Tests.
Description: Through this short video, we will explain the nature of independent and dependent clauses and their role in GMAT Sentence Correction.
Independent and Dependent Clauses
Clauses
A clause is a group of words that contains a subject – verb pair. Clauses can be of two types, independent and dependent clauses; in this short article, we will explain the difference between independent and dependent clauses and what role each of them plays in sentence formation. Understanding the nature of independent and dependent clauses will be very helpful in solving a great many GMAT SC questions.
Independent Clauses
Independent clauses are those clauses that can stand on their own, meaning they form a complete sentence on their own, separate from all other parts of the sentence. Let us illustrate through the following example:
Example 1 –
Because he is conscious about his fitness, Henry swims every day.
In this sentence, the bolded portion can be a complete sentence in itself; the active verb “swims” acts upon the independent subject “Henry” to form a complete thought, leading to a complete sentence.
Dependent Clauses
Dependent clauses are those clauses that cannot stand on their own, meaning that separate from the other parts of the sentence, they do not form a complete sentence with a complete meaning. Let us illustrate through the following example:
Example 2 –
Because he is conscious about his fitness, Henry swims every day.
Taking the same sentence as the last example, the bolded part in this sentence cannot be a complete sentence in itself; the use of “Because” means that that clause does not convey a complete meaning on its own. Thus, this clause is a dependent one.
This article has deliberately been kept brief; for a more elaborate explanation, please refer to the Experts’ Global Stage One Sentence Correction videos.
