Its main clause, “Wilson became,” is boring compared with other stuff going on here. The stuff in the subordinate clause — the part that begins with the subordinating conjunction “when ...

Absolute constructions are usually semantically related to the main clause as abridged conditional (if), circumstantial (since), causal (because), temporal (after, when), or adversative (although ...

Once we see that the main clause isn’t pulling its weight, we can consider alternatives. For example, what if we decided that spring should be the main subject of the sentence?

Complex sentences combine independent (or “main”) and dependent (or “subordinate”) clauses: “When the dog barked, my sister cried.” In this example, “my sister cried” is the independent or main clause ...

Nonessential words and phrases are elements of a sentence which do not contain information essential to the meaning of the sentence as a whole. Jan, the second of three children, always feels left out ...

1. Relative clauses are “embedded” grammatical structures, contained inside other grammatical structures. 2. Relative clauses play a central role in English discourse. 3. Relative clause knowledge is ...