A confusion concerning subordinating conjunctions

Question

Dear teachers, a lovely morning to all of you!

I'm confused about a few things concerning subordinating conjunctions.

Subordinating conjunctions: connecting words that join a dependent clause to a main clause/independent clause.

The thing that I'm confused about is that people say that a subordinating conjunction joins a dependent clause to an independent clause. But, aren't both the clauses that it joins independent?

For example:

-Tom woke up very late in the morning although he had slept early last night.

Here, if we remove "although", we would be left with two independent clauses: Tom woke up very late in the morning and he had slept early last night.

Then why do we say that a subordinating conjunction joins/connects a dependent clause to an independent clause where both the clauses that it joins are independent, i.e., can stand on their own.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Laborioust a subordinating conjunction joins a dependent clause to an independent clause. But, aren't both the clauses that it joins independent?

No, they are not.

Laborious-Tom woke up very late in the morning although he had gone to sleep early last night. Here, if we remove "although", we would be left with two independent clauses

But you cannot remove 'although'; it heads the clause.

This is not possible:

Tom woke up very late in the morning. Although he had gone to sleep early last night.

This is possible:

Tom woke up very late in the morning. And he had gone to sleep late last night.

A confusion concerning subordinating conjunctions

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