Sentence Structure and Types

• Experienced writers vary their sentence structure to make writing interesting
• Too many simple sentences sound choppy
• Too many long sentences are hard to understand
• There are three sentence types: simple, compound, and complex

Definitions

• Noun: A person, place, thing, or idea, for example dog, school, rubber ducky
• Verb: An action or state of being, for example jumped, felt, are, were
• Subject: A noun or set of words that acts out the verb, for example The yellow puppy
• Clause: A structure that has a subject and a verb, for example The yellow puppy barked
• Independent Clause: A structure that has a subject and verb that expresses a complete idea and can stand alone, for example The yellow puppy barked at the black cat
• Dependent Clause: A structure that has a subject and a verb, but does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone, for example When the yellow puppy barked
• Coordinating conjunctions: A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses, for, or, and, yet, nor, so, but, for example The yellow puppy barked, and the black cat jumped
• Subordinating conjunctions: A word that connects an independent clause to a dependent clause, for example After the yellow puppy barked, the black cat jumped

Simple Sentence

• A simple sentence has one independent clause
• An independent clause has a subject and a verb
• An independent clause expresses a complete thought
• Some students like to study in the morning
• The green dish broke
• The llama spit

Compound Structures

• Compound subject: A subject that has two parts connected with a coordinating conjunction.
• Cassidy and Arturo like to study in the morning
• Compound verb: A verb that has two parts often connected with a coordinating conjunction
• Alicia goes to the library and studies every day
• Compound direct object: A noun that receives the action of the verb
• The green dish hit the ground
• Compound prepositional phrase: A phrase that begins with a preposition
• The llama spit at the man's head

Compound Sentence

• A compound sentence has two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
• Except for very short sentences, a comma goes right before a coordinating conjunction
• I tried to speak Spanish, and my friend tried to speak English
• Alejandro played football, so Maria went shopping

Complex Sentence

• A complex sentence has one independent clause and one to two dependent clauses
• A complex sentence has a subordinating conjunction (because, since, after, although, when...) or a pronoun (who, which, and that)
• If a dependent clause has a subordinating conjunction and is located at the beginning of the sentence, a comma separates it from the independent clause

Complex Sentences With Subordinating Conjunctions

• When he handed in his homework, he forgot to give the teacher the last page
• The teacher returned the homework after she noticed the error
• The students are studying because they have a test tomorrow

Complex Sentences Using Relative Pronouns

• I have a friend whose hair is pink
• This is the book that everyone is talking about
• The book, which is out of print, is one of my favorites