An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb, and it expresses a complete thought. It can stand alone as a sentence. For example, in the sentence “The dog barks,” “The dog” is the subject, and “barks” is the verb, making it an independent clause. Independent clauses can also be combined with other clauses to form more complex sentences. For instance, in the sentence “The dog barks, and the cat meows,” both “The dog barks” and “the cat meows” are independent clauses. They are joined by the conjunction “and,” but each can function on its own.