Of the 75 questions that comprise the English portion of the ACT, 40 will be grammar questions. That means that over half of your English section score is reliant on your ability to understand grammar and change sentences so they are grammatically correct. There are many grammar rules that are examined on the ACT, but you will consistently see the same handful over and over. One of the concepts that you’ll need to have a good grasp of is identifying independent and dependent clauses and knowing how to correctly combine them.

The ACT English section tests students pretty heavily on their understanding of English grammar. If you’re a native English speaker, it can be super tempting to just let your English intuition take over and try to lead the way through these questions. However, this doesn’t always pan out well. The ACT is sneaky with some of their English grammar questions and will phrase things in ways that sound nice to your English-speaking brain but that may not actually be grammatically sound. For that reason, your best bet is to drill English grammar rules leading up to test day so that you have a firm grasp of what rule is being tested and how to determine the correct answer, rather than relying on “what sounds right.”

The world of English grammar is vast and complicated. There’s no way you could possibly study all English grammar rules, so the ACT focuses on some major ones that you probably should be familiar with to prepare yourself for college-level writing. One of these areas that shows up frequently throughout the English section has to do with independent and dependent clauses. You need to be able to identify them, know when they are connected incorrectly, and know how to update the punctuation so they are connected correctly. Here we’ll walk you through how independent and dependent clauses work, what you need to know about them for the ACT, and what types of questions you can expect to see about them on the test.

For many high schoolers, it will have been a long time since they’ve visited English grammar rules. If that’s you, don’t worry! You’ll probably recognize a lot of these concepts once you go through some examples. For others, maybe you never learned them. That’s okay, too. With repetition, all of these concepts can become second-nature by test-day. We definitely think you should practice clause questions leading up to test day to give yourself the best chance of hitting your full potential in the English section of the ACT.

ACT English Hint:
For all questions that ask about grammar, make sure to read the ENTIRE SENTENCE that encompasses the question.

What is a clause?

Perhaps you are familiar with the terms Independent Clause and Dependent Clause. If you are, awesome. If not, check out our breakdown here:

Independent Clause:
A complete thought that can stand on its own; can be its own sentence

Dependent Clause:
An incomplete thought that can not stand on its own; a chunk of a sentence that needs to be attached to more information

If you want to do well on all of the English grammar questions, you need to have a solid understanding of when a clause is INDEPENDENT and when a clause is DEPENDENT.

Are you able to easily read a phrase and determine if it could be a full sentence by itself? Check out the samples below —

Example 1: he smelled the cookies that were baking

What do you think? Is Example 1 a full thought? Can it stand by itself? The answer is YES! This phrase is INDEPENDENT. Example 1 is a full thought complete with a subject (he) and a verb (smelled), and it could totally stand alone as a sentence. If you find this confusing, close your eyes and imagine yourself saying this phrase to a different person. Would they receive a full message or would they be confused and expect you to continue saying more? This is a full thought and someone would definitely understand your message.

Example 2: which seemed strange to her

Now try Example 2. Imagine you say this phrase and only this phrase to another person. Would they be confused? Yes, they totally would! This is not a full thought. This phrase clearly needs to be latched onto something else in order to make a complete thought. That is how you know that this phrase is DEPENDENT.

If you’re still having trouble with this, focus on practice identifying independent and dependent clauses. Treat English grammar rules like learning different concepts in algebra or geometry — in math classes you repeat concepts over and over on worksheet after worksheet until they make sense. You can use that same method here. The more practice you do, the better your understanding will become of what makes an independent clause and what makes a dependent one.

How do I combine clauses?

Once you’re able to easily identify when a clause is independent and when it is dependent, now you need to consider how to COMBINE different clauses. This is where the majority of the questions about clauses come in on test day. You need to know how to combine the different types of clauses and what the correct punctuation for doing so is.

Lets start by looking at some things that you CAN’T do in English:

• You can NEVER combine two dependent clauses — a dependent clause must ALWAYS be attached to an independent clause in order to be grammatical.

• You can NEVER combine two independent clauses with just a comma. This is called a COMMA SPLICE.

• You can NEVER simply attach two independent clauses without any punctuation between them. This is called a RUN-ON SENTENCE.

INCORRECT CLAUSE USAGE:

Take a look at these examples of incorrect ways to combine clauses. You will be tasked with changing sentences like this on the ACT English section so that they are grammatically correct.

Remember that the ACT is entirely multiple choice. That means that knowing when an answer is INCORRECT can often be just as valuable as knowing when an answer is CORRECT. Process of elimination can be very helpful for English grammar questions. Knowing the WRONG ways of connecting clauses (illustrated above) can help you eliminate wrong answers and narrow down to the one correct answer.

Now that you know what is WRONG when combining clauses, lets look at what is RIGHT.

How to CORRECTLY combine clauses:

• A comma often shows up between an INDEPENDENT CLAUSE and a DEPENDENT CLAUSE

• There are 4 ways to correctly combine 2 INDEPENDENT CLAUSES:

  1. A period and a capital letter

  2. A comma and a FANBOYS conjunction

  3. A semicolon

  4. A colon
     

CORRECT CLAUSE USAGE

Your task throughout the English section of the ACT will be to identify when clauses are connected incorrectly and then fix them so that they are grammatically correct. Memorizing both the CORRECT ways and the INCORRECT ways to combine clause types will help you to work through these questions on test day.

What will clause questions look like on the ACT?

Lets walk through a few sample clause questions like that you can expect to see on test day.

Example 1: Question #52 (below)

In question #52 (above), you should start by isolating the sentence that contains the underlined portion in question: “they are creatures that feed.” Assess your sentence to determine what type of clauses it is made up of currently before making a change. You should come to the conclusion that the first part of the sentence is an independent clause that can stand by itself: “Wentletraps live on the ocean floor,” — note the comma that follows that clause: you CAN NOT change that comma, so you should already be expecting a DEPENDENT CLAUSE to follow the independent one.

Oftentimes, it will help to be able to identify which answer option is DIFFERENT than the others in regards to types of clauses. The three incorrect answers in this question all make the sentence into INDEPENDENT, INDEPENDENT, which is WRONG. There is only one answer option that makes the second clause DEPENDENT, which is answer option J. J is the correct answer.

*Takeaway: You have to change this sentence to IND, DEP to be grammatically correct. Answer option J is the only choice that does this.

*Note: Make sure you read the entire sentence every time you substitute one of your answer options to test it.

Example 2: Question #12 (below)

Question #12 (above) is similar to the last sample question #52. Start by determining what types of clauses are initially included in the question. “Although these snowflakes appear to have a triangular shape” — this is DEPENDENT. If you said that aloud to someone and did not add any more information, they would be quite confused. “They actually have a hexagonal pattern” — this second part is an INDEPENDENT clause. It is a full thought that can stand on its own. Therefore, this time you have a DEPENDENT clause followed by an INDEPENDENT clause. Again, you should be thinking IND, DEP to make this sentence grammatically correct. Therefore, the correct answer here is G — a comma between the two clauses.

*Takeaway: You have to change this sentence to DEP, IND to be grammatically correct. Answer option G is the only choice that does this.

*Note: Use process of elimination to help you eliminate wrong answers. Answer J above is a semicolon ( ; ), which requires an independent clause on each side, so that can be eliminated. Answer H above is a colon ( : ), which requires an independent clause before it, so that can be eliminated as well.

Example 3: Question #50 (below)

Question # 50 (above) requires the same approach as the first two example problems. You’ll always want to start by isolating your sentence and determining what types of clauses you are working with. Here, you have “Above the columns extends a horizontal stone band called a frieze” — this is an INDEPENDENT clause that could stand on its own. You then have “Carved into it are the classical theatrical masks that represent comedy and tragedy” — this is ALSO an INDEPENDENT clause that could stand on its own. Therefore, now you need to consider the 4 ways that you can combine INDEPENDENT clauses (refer to the image above): 1) period and a capital letter, 2) comma and a FANBOYS conjunction, 3) semicolon ( ; ), or 4) colon ( : ). Notice that answer option F. NO CHANGE already has a semicolon ( ; ) between the two clauses, so that is the correct answer here.

Take a look at your other answer options above. The other options are all wrong. Answer G changes the second clause to a DEPENDENT clause, which means you can no longer use a semicolon ( ; ). Answer H also changes the second clause to a DEPENDENT clause, which makes it so you can’t put a period between the clauses. Answer J simply places a comma between the two INDEPENDENT clauses, which we know is bad — this is called a comma splice.

*Takeaway: You have to select the only answer that correctly combines two independent clauses IND+IND. The only answer that does that correctly here is answer option F.

These are a few straightforward examples of types of clause questions you could see show up on the ACT English section on test day. There are bound to be quite a few of these questions, and some may seem much more complex than the three we walked through here. However, the approach is always the same: begin by isolating the sentence that contains the question, and then determine the types of clauses you are working with. Remember that you separate an independent clause from a dependent clause using a comma. Remember that this is not the case with two independent clauses: you can only connect these with the 4 methods noted above.

The more you practice these types of questions, the better you will become at working through them, and the easier it will be for you to identify when a clause is dependent or independent. Remember: practice, practice, practice!

Good luck, and happy studying!

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