Page 10 - New Grammar with a Smile 7

A group of words that conveys complete sense is called a sentence.
A sentence always begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop,
an exclamation mark or a question mark. It also has a subject and a verb.

Now, read these groups of words.

y a nice story
y a gang of thieves
y a beautiful dress
These groups of words make sense but not complete sense.

A group of words that conveys some sense but not complete sense is called
a phrase. A phrase does not have a subject or a finite verb.

Now, read these groups of words.
y because it was raining
y and the thieves escaped
y but he went there anyway
y before they go to the airport

These groups of words make sense but not complete sense. Each group of words has a
subject and a verb.

A group of words that conveys some sense but not complete sense, and also
has a subject and a finite verb is called a clause.

Now, read these sentences. They are made up of two clauses.
y Mr Jones asked him a question, but he did not know the answer.
y Call me after you come back from school.
y Since we were hungry, we stopped at a dhaba on the way.

y Although he was unwell, he went to school.
In these sentences, the highlighted clauses can stand alone because they convey
complete meaning. The underlined clauses cannot stand alone because they do
not convey complete meaning. They depend on the highlighted clauses to make
complete sense.

Clauses which convey complete meaning and can stand alone are called main or
independent clauses. Clauses which depend on independent clauses to convey
complete sense are called subordinate or dependent clauses.

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