My daughter has some homework in which she has to identify independent clauses and subordinate clauses as well as indentifying whether the sentence is simple, complex, or compound. I can help her with the last part, but don't know how to help her with the subordinate clauses and independent clauses. The sentences are so dang long! For example, the first one is: "Central-Phenix City's lunchroom was full Wednesday to witness one of Ron Nelson's final duties as football coach for the Red Devils as nine players signed letter of intent to play college football." HELP!
Central-Phenix City's lunchroom was full Wednesday to witness one of Ron Nelson's final duties as football coach for the Red Devils = main (independent) clause
as nine players signed letter of intent to play college football = subordinate (dependent) clause
Dependent clauses are almost always introduced by a particular type of word: a subordinate conjunction, a relative pronoun, an interrogative pronoun, etc.
Let me find some links for you.
Central-Phenix City's lunchroom was full Wednesday to witness one of Ron Nelson's final duties as football coach for the Red Devils as nine players signed letter of intent to play college football
Independent clause:
Central-Phenix City's lunchroom was full Wednesday to witness one of Ron Nelson's final duties as football coach for the Red Devils
Subordinate clause:
as nine players signed letter of intent to play college football
Check this site for excellent information about subordinate clauses.
http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/subordinateclause.htm
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/clauses.htm
**The powerpoint presentation is a good one.
**Also, scroll down to the section on independent clauses, then to the section on dependent clauses.
**There are also some good quizzes here that can help to reinforce the ideas.
http://members.cox.net/lenco1/grammarpractice/clausesnav.htm
from http://members.cox.net/teachro/
Really good explanations and practice here.
Certainly! Identifying independent clauses and subordinate clauses is a key skill in understanding sentence structure. I can help you break down the sentence you provided and identify the clauses.
First, let's define independent and subordinate clauses:
- Independent clauses: These are complete thoughts or standalone sentences that can function on their own as a complete sentence.
- Subordinate clauses: These are clauses that cannot function as standalone sentences and depend on an independent clause to make complete sense.
Now, let's analyze the sentence you provided: "Central-Phenix City's lunchroom was full Wednesday to witness one of Ron Nelson's final duties as football coach for the Red Devils as nine players signed letters of intent to play college football."
To identify the independent and subordinate clauses, you can follow these steps:
1. Find any conjunctions (e.g., and, but, because) that may indicate the presence of subordinate clauses.
2. Look for complete thoughts that can stand alone as a sentence.
In the given sentence, we can identify the following clauses:
Independent clause: "Central-Phenix City's lunchroom was full Wednesday." This is a complete thought that can stand alone as a sentence.
Subordinate clause: "to witness one of Ron Nelson's final duties as football coach for the Red Devils." This clause depends on the independent clause and cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.
Independent clause: "nine players signed letters of intent to play college football." This is another complete thought that can stand alone as a sentence.
By breaking down the sentence into these clauses, we see that it contains one independent clause and one subordinate clause.
Now that you understand the difference between independent and subordinate clauses, you can help your daughter identify them in her homework. Encourage her to locate conjunctions and determine if they connect two complete thoughts or if one thought relies on the other.