Dependent Clauses, Subordinating Conjunctions,

and Relative Pronouns

More Awesome GrammarTo Accompany

The Scarlet Letter

JOURNALExamine the sentence below. Where is the

independent clause? Are there any other groups of words in this sentence that have both a subject AND a verb?

“Had a man seen old Roger Chillingworth, at that moment of his ecstasy, he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports himself, when a precious human soul is lost to heaven, and won into his kingdom.” (Ch. 10, p. 95)

Vocabulary

A dependent clause will begin with a subordinate conjunction or a relative pronoun and will contain both a subject and a verb. This combination of words will not form a complete sentence. It will instead make a reader want additional information to finish the thought.

Subordinate Conjunctions (These are on the handout… don’t write them all down!)

after once untilalthough provided that whenas rather than wheneverbecause since wherebefore so that whereaseven if than wherevereven thoughthat whetherif though whilein order that unless why

Relative Pronouns(These are on the handout—don’t write them all down!)

that who whose

which whoever whosever

whichever whom whomever

Practice!

The Steps:1. Complete the first exercise individually.2. Pair up and make some comparisons.3. Share answers in full-class discussion.

More Practice: (Second Exercise)

1. For the image to the right, write one independent clause (a regular sentence) with a clear subject and verb.

More Practice:2. Now, choose a

subordinating conjunction and add it to the beginning of that sentence. (Also, change the period to a comma. You’ve just made a dependent clause that needs to be attached to an independent clause!)

More Practice:3. You guessed it. Now

you write another independent clause attached to the dependent clause.

BOOM. You just wrote a lovely complex sentence!

More Practice: (Third exercise)For the image below, write a series of three sentences, each of

which must contain both an independent clause and at least one dependent clause per sentence.