What is the independent clause of the following sentence? is it a noun, adjective, or adverb clause?: We were late for our flight because of a traffic jam.
1 Answer
The independent clause in this sentence is "We were late for our flight."
Explanation:
An independent clause is a phrase that can stand on its own. It usually contains a subject and a verb, sometimes followed by another part of speech.
For instance, in this sentence, which phrase could be said by itself?
We were late for our flight.
or
Because of a traffic jam.
If you try saying them in your head, the first sentence makes perfect sentence by itself. Therefore it is the independent clause. The second sentence does not convey a complete thought.
What was because of a traffic jam? We don't know what it's trying to explain.
Therefore, the second sentence is a dependent clause, because it is dependent on another phrase in order to make sense.
The clause is also an adverb clause because it is describing the verb.
What were we? We were late for our flight.
(For our flight is a preposition, but since it follows and expounds on late , it is in the adverb clause.)
Hope this helps!
