Clauses are the building blocks of sentences 

A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb.

There are two types of clauses: independent and dependent

Independent Clauses

Can stand on their own as a whole idea.    

Create a complete, simple sentence.

• The sun shone brightly.
• The air was cool.

Can be combined using a comma and a conjunction to create a compound sentence.

• The sun shone brightly, and the air was cool.

Conjunctions are words used to connect clauses or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause. 

Examples: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

Dependent Clauses

Cannot stand on their own.

Depend on something else to complete the thought.

Begin with a subordinator or dependent word.

• Before the sun set
• After the campfire went out

Dependent clauses must be combined with an independent clause to form a complex sentence.

• Before the sun set, we found a campsite.
• We ate dinner after the campfire went out.

Rule: If the dependent clause comes before the independent clause, then a comma is used to separate them.