Grade 5 · Writing · Lesson 5

Grammar: Clauses, Phrases, and Complex Sentence Structures

A clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb. Some clauses can stand alone as a sentence. Others cannot — they need to lean on another clause to make sense. Strong fifth-grade writers use both kinds together to build complex sentences that show how ideas connect.

What this lesson teaches

1Distinguish independent clauses from dependent clauses
2Identify subordinating conjunctions that begin dependent clauses
3Combine two simple sentences into one complex sentence
4Punctuate complex sentences correctly when the dependent clause comes first

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