KS2 SATs SATs Practice Papers Worksheets, Questions and Revision

In the sentence 'Although the rain had stopped, the pitch was still too wet to play on', identify the subordinate clause, name the word that introduces it, and explain why a comma is used.

1. Find the verbs: had stopped and was.
2. Test each part on its own. 'The pitch was still too wet to play on' makes sense alone, so that is the main clause.
3. 'Although the rain had stopped' does not make sense on its own, so that is the subordinate clause.
4. The word introducing it is Although, which is a subordinating conjunction.
5. The subordinate clause comes FIRST in this sentence, before the main clause.
6. So the comma is used to separate the subordinate clause from the main clause that follows it. Answer: the subordinate clause is 'Although the rain had stopped', introduced by the subordinating conjunction 'Although', and the comma marks where that clause ends.