Clauses

So far, we have been studying the grammar of the simple sentence: that is, a sentence
containing one (and only one) finite verb. In other words, a sentence containing one
subject and one predicate. Many sentences, however, contain more than one finite verb.
Such sentences consist of two or more groups of words, each of which has a subject and
predicate of its own.
Examples:
i. The weather was fine.
ii. We walked every day.
iii. The weather was fine and we walked every day.
The two simple sentences, I and II, are linked by the conjunction 'and' to form sentence
III, which contains two finite verbs ('was' and 'walked'). Therefore, sentence III contains
two subjects and two predicates. Its structure is:
 Subject 1 and Predicate 1 + Link + Subject II and Predicate II
 the weather was fine + and + we walked every day
Each simple sentence has become part of another sentence. In so doing, it
ceased to be a sentence and became a clause. The clauses that are of equal rank and are
joined by a coordinating conjunction are called independent clauses. One identification of
an independent clause is that if it is taken out of the sentence, it can stand alone as a
sentence and give proper meanings.
However not all clauses are same, and can stand alone as sentence. There are certain
clauses that cannot stand alone as a sentence and give their proper meanings only when
they are read with the sentence they are part of.
Example:
 If you need more money, just call me.
If we look at this sentence we can see two verbs ‘need’ and ‘call’ each verb has its own
subject. So basically this sentence has two clauses:
i. If you need more money
ii. just call me
However, if we remove the second clause of sentence, the first clause cannot stand alone
as a sentence. Though it has a subject and a predicate yet it can only give its meaning
when read with other part of it. This type of clause is called dependent clause.