An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb, and it expresses a complete thought. For example, in the sentence "The dog barks," "The dog" is the subject, and "barks" is the verb. Independent clauses can stand alone as sentences because they convey a full idea. 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," creating a compound sentence.