Sentences
To form a sentence, English requires a subject and a verb. These must be put together to form a complete thought.
Examples:
Ilike pizza.
We are going to the mall after school.
Munsu sings all the time.
Sometimes, we can have more than one subject with one verb. This is called a compound subject.
The boys and the girls went to the movie.
Horses and sheep eat grass.
Ben, Nicole, Neal, Tera, Scott, Adam, Carey and Josh have a surprise for Shannon.
Sometimes, we can have more than one verb with one subject. This is called a compound verb.
Neal is having lunch and meeting his girlfriend during his break.
The porpoise swims and plays in the aquarium.
They ate and drank all night long.
The above sentences are all examples of simple sentences. They consist of one independent clause only.
Compound sentences.
Compound sentences consist of two independent clauses. The clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction and a comma.
Coordinating conjunctions:
For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So
(You can easily remember all of the coordinating conjunctions if you remember the word FANBOYS. This word is spelled with the first letter of each coordinating conjunction)
Ben likes swedish meatballs, but Neal prefers steak.
They are going to the movies now, so we will see them later.
My mom’s spaghetti is amazing, yet my brother refuses to eat it.
Of course, we can still use compound subjects.
Penguins and Polar bears like cold weather, but lions and tigers prefer warm weather.
We can also use compound verbs.
They read and sleep in bed, but she reads and sleeps on the couch.
Any sentence which has two independent clauses and is joined by a coordinating conjunction is a compound sentence.
Complex sentences
A complex sentence is a sentence with an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses attached to it. Dependent clauses begin with dependent marker words, and do not express a complete thought by themselves. If the clause starts the sentence, a comma must follow the clause. We don’t use a comma when the dependent clause follows the independent clause.
Examples of marker words (there are many more):
When
Because
Since
Before
After
Although
When I go to school, Tera is always there before me.
Clowns scare me because of an incident from my childhood.
Before the sun sets, I want to go for a run.
Although she enjoys studying, she would rather be out with her friends on a Friday night.