Read this excerpt from "Crossing the Bar" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Which two lines are examples of a dependent clause?

A. (Sunset and evening star,)

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

B. (When I put out to sea,)

But such a tide as moving seems asleep.

C. (Too full for sound and foam,)

D. (When that which drew from out the boundless deep)

Turns again home.

The correct answer is B)

Explanation:

A) First, a clause is an incomplete sentence or a group of words that can't stand alone or one that does not have meaning standing by itself.

B) Furthermore, it must have a verb and a subject.

A verb, if you recall is an action word while a subject is "the person or thing being referred to".

Looking at the clauses in option B we can see that they both meet the above conditions.

Let's see clause one - "And may there be no moaning of the bar, "

It is clear that the verb here is "moaning" while the subject is "the Bar".

It's clear to see that these group of words meet the conditions given in A and B above because left by themselves, they make no meaning.

Let's take a look at the second clause:

"When I put out to sea,"

"I" here is the subject. It is a pronoun. A pronoun is simply a word that can be used instead of the noun. That is a noun can easily but inserted in the place of "I". Hence, we have "I" as the subject.

"Put Out" here is a verb which means to relocate.

So "When I put out to sea" also meets the conditions in A and B above.

Cheers!