clause: a verbal phrase together with any nominal or adverbial phrases or clauses that may depend on it. Clauses may be dependent or independent. An independent clause can form a sentence. For instance, the sentence "I know that you saw it" consists of the independent (main) clause [I know [that you saw it]], which contains the dependent clause [that you saw it]. Sometimes clauses are set off by (square) brackets [2], as can be seen in these examples. [Spanish: oración [1], cláusula]