--- title: Clauses: main, subordinate and joining words — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Clauses: main, subordinate and joining words», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A clause is a group of words with a verb in it. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Clauses: main, subordinate and joining… # Clauses: main, subordinate and joining words Lesson 28 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 19 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/0/) — A clause is a group of words with a verb in it. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/1/) — A main clause makes sense on its own: «The dog barked.» A subordinate clause has a verb too, but it leans on a main clause and can't stand alone: «when the postman came». - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/4/) — Subordinate clauses usually start with a subordinating conjunction: because, when, if, although, while, after, before, until, since or as. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/6/) — Join it: «We stayed in because it was raining.» Aoife in Belfast asks about the wee (little) sentence «If you're quick, you'll catch the bus.» Which bit's the main? - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/7/) — Cover each part: «you'll catch the bus» makes sense alone, so that is the main clause. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/8/) — The comma rule: when the subordinate clause comes first, put a comma after it. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/9/) — «Although I wasn't hungry, I ate my dinner.» When the main clause comes first, you usually don't need one: «I ate my dinner although I wasn't hungry.» Jacob says, «Bro, "while I was gaming, Mum called", that's a clause, no cap» (no cap means no lie). - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/10/) — He's right: «while I was gaming» is a subordinate clause and «Mum called» is the main clause. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/11/) — A phrase has no verb. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/13/) — Kai writes «I like pizza and I like chips.» That is two main clauses joined by and, but it's neater as «I like pizza and chips.» Mum in Liverpool says «our kid's» (her son's) sentences go on for ever: very long chains of clauses lose the reader, so mix short and long sentences. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/14/) — A clause is a group of words that contains a verb. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/15/) — A main clause makes sense on its own. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/16/) — A subordinate clause contains a verb but does not make sense on its own; it depends on a main clause. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/18/) — Co-ordinating conjunctions such as and, but, or and so join two main clauses. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/19/) — When a subordinate clause comes before the main clause, a comma follows it. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/21/) — The same word can start a phrase or a clause: «after lunch» is a phrase, «after we had lunch» is a clause. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/22/) — A subordinate clause written alone, like «Because it was raining.», is an incomplete sentence. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/23/) — To find the main clause, cover each part and see which one still makes sense alone. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/24/) — Mixing short and long sentences makes writing clearer and more interesting. - ← previous: [Word classes: the jobs words do](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/27-word-classes-the-jobs-words-do/) - next →: [Fronted adverbials](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)