Question

Identify the number of independent and subordinate causes in the following group of words. If the cat eats it’s food

Answer 1

one subordinate clause only

In this fragment "If the cat eats its food", the word "if" acts as a subordinate clause. All clauses contain a subject and a verb. In this clause, the subject is the "cat" and "eats" is the verb. The entire clause begins with the subordinate conjunction "if" which creates the dependency of the clause and labels it as a subordinate clause. By using "if" to start the sentence, the speaker insinuates that there is something more to the idea than just the cat eats. The reader is left wondering what will happen if the cat eats its food.

Answer 2

(Assuming that the clause is  if the cat eats its food and not If the cat eats it´s food.)

First of all, an independent clause is that which expresses an idea by itself. A subordinate clause is the one which depends on another, normally coupled to another by a coordinating conjunction: as,for,by, among others. In this case,we have a conjunction: IF, which in general, joins a sentence with another in which one represents a condition to the second, for example, if it does not rain,we should go swimming.

In the case of if the cat eats its food, we have only one subordinate clause. The reason is that it is not possible to make two sentences out of this one, so it isnot possible to say that there are two independent clauses.

There is not an independet clause only, because although there is only one clause,it is subordinate, the point is that we do not have the clause that it depends on. And so,there is only one clause,we could not say that there is a subordinate and an independent clause either, so the answer is: a subordinate clause only.