Question

Is the underlined clause independent or subordinate?

If he had been left to himself, Brian would have been happy to whistle his life away.

Answer 1

Whats underlined? :)

Answer 2

Indepentent clause: Can stand on it's own, its a full sentence.
Subordinate clase: Can't stand on it's own, it's a sentence fragment or a run-on sentence. :)

Answer 3

@shadybubba

Answer 4

So in this case
the independent clause would be: "Brian would have been happy to whistle his life away."
and
the dependent (aka subordinate) clause would be: "If he had been left to himself"