The Linguists’ Forum’s episode of 9th August, 2025 discusses the difference between a clause and a phrase. The episode also foregrounds that candidates’ inability to identify the elements that set the two grammatical units apart is fundamental to their poor performance in that section of WASSCE and NECO. Interested readers can visit the episode for further reading on the topic. While the Forum dedicated the last three episodes to phrases and their types and functions, it is shifting its attention to clauses in this episode.
What is a clause?
A clause is generally described as a group of words that has a subject and a finite verb.
Examples: (1) When I got home yesterday (Subject: “I”) (Verb: “got”).
(2) She broke the glass (Subject: “She”) (Verb: “broke”).
Types of a clause
There are two major types of clauses. They are independent and dependent clauses.
Independent Clause
An independent clause, which is also called a main clause, is the type of clause that expresses a complete thought. It can, therefore, stand alone as a sentence. When it does, it is regarded as a simple sentence, as in:
(3) Mr Tunde loves football (independent clause/simple sentence).
(4) Ahmed performed very well in the examination (independent clause/simple sentence).
(5) Ogechukwu went to the market (independent clause/simple sentence).
Two independent clauses can be joined by a coordinating conjunction such as “and,” “but,” “for,” “nor,” “or,” “so” and “yet” to form a compound sentence, as in:
(6) “She went to the market” (but) “She did not buy anything”
= She went to the market but did not buy anything (compound sentence).
(7) “The community caught the thief” (and) “The community handed the thief over to the police”
= The community caught the thief and handed him over to the police (compound sentence).
Dependent Clause
A dependent clause is the type of clause that has a subject and a finite verb but cannot stand alone. It does not express a complete thought when it stands alone as a grammatical unit. It has to be joined with an independent clause to express a complete thought. That is why it is called a subordinate clause.
Examples of a dependent clause are:
(8) When I got home yesterday
(9) Because he came late
(10) That we kept quiet
Reading through each of (8), (9) and (10), one could ask, “What then happened?” as much is left unexpressed in the construction.
Types of dependent (subordinate) clauses
There are three types of dependent clauses.
They are:
Noun clause: We understood “what the teacher taught us.”
Adjectival/Relative clause: I saw the woman “whose daughter traveled abroad last week.”
Adverbial clause: The principal was addressing the class “when the boy broke the stick.”
In testing candidates’ ability to identify grammatical names and functions, WASSCE and NECO usually focus on the three types of dependent clauses. Therefore, every candidate must be able to name each of them correctly before s/he can state its function in relation to other clause(s) that make(s) up the sentence in which the dependent clause is a part. In the next three episodes, Linguists’ Forum will give specific attention to these three types of clause. Watch out!
Lateef Iyanda Kugbayi, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Department of English Language
Zamfara State University
Talata Mafara
lateefkugbayi19@gmail.com/+2347032985052