main clause

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main clause

n.
A clause in a complex sentence that contains at least a subject and a verb and can stand alone syntactically as a complete sentence. Also called independent clause.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

main clause

n
(Grammar) grammar a clause that can stand alone as a sentence. Compare subordinate clause
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

main′ clause′


n.
a clause that can stand alone as a sentence, containing a subject and a predicate with a finite verb, as I was there in the sentence I was there when he arrived. Compare subordinate clause.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.main clause - a clause in a complex sentence that can stand alone as a complete sentence
complex sentence - a sentence composed of at least one main clause and one subordinate clause
clause - (grammar) an expression including a subject and predicate but not constituting a complete sentence
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
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References in classic literature
In its original form, this law offered a premium for cat-heads (fourpence a-piece), but the Senate succeeded in amending the main clause, so as to substitute the word "tails" for "heads." This amendment was so obviously proper, that the House concurred in it nem.
Structurally, a sentence may be either simple sentence (having only one main clause) as in sentence (1) below or non-simple/multiple sentence (having two or more clauses) as in sentence (2) to (4).
The simplest way, I suggest, of converting this subordinate adverbial clause to a main clause is to dispense with the subordinating adjunct: though.
The least controversial comma placement is between introductory matter and a main clause. Think of the sentences you've read that begin, "Moreover," "Meanwhile," "That said," and so on.
More important than putting praise or criticism first is putting the student's strength in the sentence's main clause. Subordinating conjunctions like while, although, unless, because, and even if make the information in that part of the sentence depend on information in the rest of the sentence: I can't say "While Tariq needs to work on sticking to his thesis" without adding more to the sentence.
She focuses on the phenomenon of left-dislocation in which the same referent is expressed twice in a sentence: first in a detached position at the start of the sentence, then again as a pronominal phrase within the main clause. The purpose, she says, seems to be to highlight at at the very beginning the entity that the following predication is about.
Hock reaffirms his own claim that the Sanskrit relative clause is conjoined to the main clause, citing cases where there is no clear relationship between the relative and correlative pronouns, such as relative clauses serving as conditional clauses, and relative clauses containing interrogation and imperative modality.
Then of thy beauty do I question make, (12:9) Then the conceit of this inconstant stay (15:9) Except the adverbial clauses of time in the first eight lines, both sonnets have two main clauses, one in the third quatrain and the other in the concluding couplet; both start their first main clause in line eight, and both begin their ending couplets with the same coordinating conjunction "And," which tightly links the first main clause in the third quatrain with the second main clause in the concluding rhyming couplets, just as Edward Hubler points out: "It is simply that "when" introduces a subordinate clause which must, perhaps after more subordinate matter, lead to a main clause, thus creating an arrangement of logically ordered elements in an emphatic sequence" (25).
When this system was asked question "Is the policeman Manabu?", this system needs to find a main clause to convert the question into an assertive sentence.
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