Clauses, commas and fronted adverbials
English · Key Stage 2 · The School
Main and subordinate
A MAIN clause makes sense alone: "The dog barked." A SUBORDINATE clause does not: "because the postman arrived". Join them and you have a complex sentence: "The dog barked because the postman arrived." The subordinate clause adds the why, when or which — it depends on the main clause to stand up.
Fronted adverbials take a comma
Move the extra information to the front and a comma follows it: "Later that evening, the dog barked again." "Without warning, the lights went out." That comma is not optional — it marks where the scene-setting stops and the sentence proper begins. Missing it is the most common KS2 punctuation error.
Vary your openings on purpose
If four sentences in a row start with "The", the writing plods. Start one with an adverbial (Suddenly,), one with a subordinate clause (Although he was tired,), one with a verb ending -ing (Racing ahead,). Vary deliberately, then read aloud — your ear will tell you whether the paragraph moves.
"We left the house quietly before dawn." Move the adverbial to the front and comma it: "Before dawn, we left the house quietly." Now start with a subordinate clause: "Although we were tired, we left the house quietly before dawn." Test each opening on its own — "Before dawn" and "Although we were tired" both fail to make sense alone, which is exactly why they need the main clause after the comma.