By Saige Brown
When it comes to clauses and the different types of punctuation marks placed between them, things can get a bit confusing at times. You may find yourself wondering which clause combinations constitute which punctuation marks. This guide is a streamlined key to the kinds of punctuation being used between different clauses, along with some examples.
Before beginning…
It is important first before getting into the specifics of clause punctuation that you know what a clause is and what it contains.
Clauses are groups of words that have a subject, a verb, and any additional information.
- Ex: The cats napped together on the couch.
“The cats” are our subject, “napped” is our verb, and “together on the couch” is our additional information.
- Ex: Since he decided to take a walk…
“He” is our subject, “decided” is our verb, and “to take a walk” is our additional information.
*The word “since” is an important concept that we discuss later on in this guide!
Two Types of Clauses
Our first clause type is called an independent clause, also known as a main clause. These combinations of words contain a subject, a verb, and any additional information and can stand alone as complete sentences. So, our first example, “The cats napped together on the couch” would be considered an independent clause.
Our second type of clause is called a dependent clause, also known as a subordinate clause. These combinations of words contain a subject, a verb, and any additional information and cannot stand alone as complete sentences. Thus, our second example, “Since he decided to take a walk…” would be considered a dependent clause. So, why is this?
Dependent clauses contain something called a subordinating conjunction, or a subordinator, that leaves the sentence needing more information. Think of it like this:
- If we have our example “Since he decided to take a walk…” without the word “since,” the clause could stand as a complete sentence by itself. “He decided to take a walk,” is a perfectly formed independent clause, but adding the word “since” makes it dependent instead.
Here are a few more examples of subordinators in action!
- Independent: They smiled at their friend.
- Dependent: While they smiled at their friend…
- Independent: The tree waved its boughs in the heavy wind.
- Dependent: As the tree waved its boughs in the heavy wind…
- Independent: The hot sun beat down on the weary travelers.
- Dependent: Though the hot sun beat down on the weary travelers…
Compound vs Complex Sentences
Getting down to the punctuation of our independent and dependent clauses, we need to understand the differences between the sentence types in English.
The first type of sentence results when at least two independent clauses are connected, called a compound sentence. There are three options for punctuation when it comes to connecting two independent clauses.
- Period
The concert was happening at the school. Nobody knew who the band was.
- Semicolon
The concert was happening at the school; nobody knew who the band was.
- Comma + Coordinating Conjunction
The concert was happening at the school, but nobody knew who the band was.
*A coordinating conjunction can be hard to identify sometimes, so use the acronym FANBOYS to help you remember them! (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So)
*Two independent clauses can never be combined with just a comma in between them! That is called a comma splice and it is grammatically incorrect in the English language, though it is a commonly made mistake.
The second type of sentence results when at least one dependent clause and one independent clause are connected, called a complex sentence. They can either be dependent followed by independent or independent followed by dependent.
For dependent clauses followed by independent clauses, there is only one option.
- Comma
Since she slept all day, she was up all night.
Our dependent clause is “since she slept all day” because of the word “since.” Following that with the independent clause “she was up all night” allows for the comma between the two clauses.
For independent clauses followed by dependent clauses, there are two options.
- No Punctuation
He took a break after his coworker arrived.
- Comma
The little bird chirped quietly, while the woman looked out of her window.
So, what is the difference between the two?
The key is to only use a comma if the information in the dependent clause does not affect the meaning of the independent clause. In other words, if the dependent clause is essential to increase an understanding of the independent clause, there is no need for any punctuation at all.
This is not to say that the independent clause needs the dependent clause to make sense; it’s independent and it can stand alone as its own sentence. Simply, the dependent clause can potentially affect what the independent clause means. Let’s look closer at our examples!
- He took a break after his coworker arrived.
“He took a break” is our independent clause followed by “after his coworker arrived” as our dependent clause, due to our subordinator “after.”
The reason why we don’t need a comma here, and why we use no punctuation, is because the dependent clause affects the meaning of the independent clause. The timing of the break being after the coworker arrived is essential to understanding more about the context of the independent clause.
On the other hand…
- The little bird chirped quietly, while the woman looked out of her window.
“The little bird chirped quietly” is our independent clause followed by “while the woman looked out of her window” as our dependent clause, due to our subordinator “while.”
The reason why we do need a comma here, and why we do use punctuation, is because the dependent clause does not affect the meaning of the independent clause. The little bird would still chirp whether the woman was looking out of her window or not.
The Formula
If you are someone who prefers to formulate concepts into neat equations, this may be a helpful strategy for you to remember the different types of punctuation between clauses!
IC=Independent Clause
DC=Dependent Clause
- IC + IC = Period, Semicolon, or Comma+FANBOYS
- DC + IC = Comma Only
- IC + DC = No Punctuation for Essential, Comma for Non-Essential
Takeaways
Knowing the different punctuation marks used between certain clauses is important to your ability to understand and answer questions you may see on your English tests, not only with the ACT and SAT but also in your classroom as well. If you want more guidance on tackling tough topics, check out the rest of Pivot’s blog!