Punctuation Between Clauses

In this lesson, you will learn to

• Identify main clauses using the trimming technique
• Punctuate the boundary between main clauses
• Identify subordinators
• Correctly punctuate the boundary between a subordinate clause and a main clause

In Lesson 4: Finite Verbs, you learned that one of the defining features of main clauses is that they have subjects and finite verbs.

In Lesson 9: Basic Subject-Verb Agreement and Lesson 10: Advanced Subject-Verb Agreement, you explored more complex types of subjects and finite verbs, and you learned to solve subject-verb agreement questions by eliminating supplements (such as interruptions and opening and closing supplements), prepositional phrases, and modifiers.

In other words, you learned how to trim a sentence down to its core subject and verb. This is especially useful when you want to determine whether or not a group of words contains a main clause—one of the most important skills you need to succeed on the DSAT Writing test.