An independent clause is a clause (a group of words containing a subject and a verb) which can stand alone as a sentence. This kind of clause is an independent clause. A simple sentence is one independent clause.
| Tom loves Erica. |
| (Simple Sentence, one independent clause) |
Two independent clauses can be joined together by a comma and one of the seven coordinating conjunctions (and, but, so, or, nor, for, yet) to form a compound sentence. Further discussion in in the next chapter.
Examples:
| Bob is eating, and Tom is sleeping. | |
| Bob is clever, but Tom is stupid. | |
| You must study hard, or you fail. | |
| Bob told a joke, so Tom laughed. | |
| Bob is tired, yet he is not going to sleep. | |
| We rarely stay in hotels, for we can't afford it. |
There are three possible ways of joining independent clauses:
| John was sick; he didn't come to school. | independent clauses joined by punctuation |
| John was sick, so he didn't come to school. | independent clauses joined by a coordinate conjunction |
| John was sick; therefore he didn't come to school. | independent clauses joined by a conjunctive adverb. |
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