main clause

A group of words made up of a subject and a predicate. A main clause (unlike a dependent clause) can stand alone as a sentence. See also:

• Independent Clause
• Matrix Clause
• Embedding

Examples and Observations:

• "I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible."
  (Oscar Wilde)



• "When liberty is taken away by force, it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default, it can never be recovered."
  (Dorothy Thompson)



• "The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe."
  (H.L. Mencken)



• "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.
  (Ernest Hemingway)



• "[A main clause is a] clause which bears no relation, or no relation other than coordination to any other or larger clause. Thus the sentence I said I wouldn't is as a whole a single main clause; in He came but I had to leave two main clauses are linked in coordination by but."
  (P.H. Matthews, "main clause," The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Oxford University Press, 1997)



• "An intelligence service is, in fact, a stupidity service."
  (E. B. White)



• "This is the sixth book I've written, which isn't bad for a guy who's only read two."
  (George Burns)



• "Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own."
  (Carol Burnett)



• "Your life story would not make a good book. Don't even try."
  (Fran Lebowitz)



• "What's another word for 'thesaurus'?"
  (Steven Wright)



• "A schedule defends from chaos and whim."
  (Annie Dillard)