Which statement accurately describes an independent clause?

• A. Contains both a subject and a verb and can stand alone as a sentence.
• B. Lacks a subject and cannot stand alone.
• C. Begins with a dependent marker.
• D. Always requires a subordinate clause.

Answer: (A)

Independent clause refers to a group of words that has a subject and a verb and can stand alone as a complete sentence. That’s exactly what this statement is capturing: it describes a unit that expresses a complete thought and doesn’t rely on anything else to be understood. For example, “The dog barks” has a subject (dog) and a verb (barks) and forms a complete thought on its own. In contrast, a dependent clause also has a subject and a verb but cannot stand alone and needs an independent clause to finish the idea (as in “Because the dog barks, the mail doesn’t come”). That helps show why the other descriptions don’t fit: starting with a dependent marker or always requiring a subordinate clause would describe dependent clauses, not independent ones. Independent clauses can be combined with others to form more complex sentences, but they don’t depend on another clause to be complete.