TYPES OF SENTENCE

There are four sentence types in English. The first sentence type is the most common: Declarative A declarative sentence "declares" or states a fact, arrangement or opinion. Declarative sentences can be either positive or negative. A declarative sentences ends with a period (. . Examples !"ll meet you at the train station. The sun rises in the East. #e doesn"t get up early. Imperative The imperative commands (or sometimes re$uests . The imperative ta%es no sub&ect as "you" is the implied sub&ect. The imperative form ends with either a period (. or an e'clamation point (( . Examples )pen the door. *inish your homewor% +ic% up that mess. Interrogative The interrogative as%s a $uestion. !n the interrogative form the au'iliary verb precedes the sub&ect which is then followed by the main verb (i.e., Are you coming ...., . The interrogative form ends with a $uestion mar% (, . Examples #ow long have you lived in *rance, -hen does the bus leave, Do you en&oy listening to classical music, Exclamatory The e'clamatory form emphasi.es a statement (either declarative or imperative with an e'clamation point (( . Examples

#urry up( That sounds fantastic( ! can"t believe you said that( Sentence Types All of these sentence types further fall into four basic sentence type categories in English.

/imple 0ompound 0omple' 0ompound 1 0omple'

Simple Sentences /imple sentences contain no con&unction (i.e., and, but, or, etc. . Examples *ran% ate his dinner $uic%ly. +eter and /ue visited the museum last /aturday. Are you coming to the party, Compound Sentences 0ompound sentences contain two statements that are connected by a con&unction (i.e., and, but, or, etc. . Examples ! wanted to come, but it was late. The company had an e'cellent year, so they gave everyone a bonus. ! went shopping, and my wife went to her classes. Complex Sentences 0omple' sentences contain a dependent clause and at least one independent clause. The two clauses are connected by a subordinator (i.e, which, who, although, despite, if, since, etc. . Examples 2y daughter, who was late for class, arrived shortly after the bell rang. That"s the man who bought our house Although it was difficult, the class passed the test with e'cellent mar%s.

Compound - Complex Sentences 0ompound 1 comple' sentences contain at least one dependent clause and more than one independent clause. The clauses are connected by both con&unctions (i.e., but, so, and, etc. and subordinators (i.e., who, because, although, etc. Examples 3ohn, who briefly visited last month, won the pri.e, and he too% a short vacation. 3ac% forgot his friend"s birthday, so he sent him a card when he finally remembered. The report which Tom complied was presented to the board, but it was re&ected because it was too comple'.

Advanced Composition for Non-Native Speakers of English http://eslbee.com

Sentences Simple! Compound! and Complex Experienced writers se a variet! of sentences to make their writing interesting and livel!. "oo man! simple sentences# for example# will so nd chopp! and immat re while too man! long sentences will be diffic lt to read and hard to nderstand. "his page contains definitions of simple# compo nd# and complex sentences with man! simple examples. "he p rpose of these examples is to help the ES$/E%$ learner to identif! sentence basics incl ding identification of sentences in the short & i''es that follow. After that# it will be possible to anal!'e more complex sentences varieties. SIMPLE SENTENCE A simple sentence# also called an independent cla se# contains a s b(ect and a verb# and it expresses a complete tho ght. )n the following simple sentences# s b(ects are in !ellow# and verbs are in green.

A. Some st dents like to st d! in the mornings. *. + an and Art ro pla! football ever! afternoon. C. Alicia goes to the librar! and st dies ever! da!.

"he three examples above are all simple sentences. Note that sentence * contains a compo nd s b(ect# and sentence C contains a compo nd verb. Simple sentences# therefore# contain a s b(ect and verb and express a complete tho ght# b t the! can also contain a compo nd s b(ects or verbs. COMPOUND SENTENCE A compo nd sentence contains two independent cla ses (oined b! a coordinator. "he coordinators are as follows: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. ,-elpf l hint: "he first letter of each of the coordinators spells FANBOYS.. Except for ver! short sentences# coordinators are alwa!s preceded b! a comma. )n the following compo nd sentences# s b(ects are in !ellow# verbs are in green# and the coordinators and the commas that precede them are in red.

A. ) tried to speak Spanish# and m! friend tried to speak English. *. Ale(andro pla!ed football# so /aria went shopping. C. Ale(andro pla!ed football# for /aria went shopping. "he above three sentences are compo nd sentences. Each sentence contains two independent cla ses# and the! are (oined b! a coordinator with a comma preceding it. Note how the conscio s se of coordinators can change the relationship between the cla ses. Sentences * and C# for example# are identical except for the coordinators. )n sentence *# which action occ rred first0 1bvio sl!# 2Ale(andro pla!ed football2 first# and as a conse& ence# 2/aria went shopping. )n sentence C# 2/aria went shopping2 first. )n sentence C# 2Ale(andro pla!ed football2 beca se# possibl!# he didn3t have an!thing else to do# for or because 2/aria went shopping.2 -ow can the se of other coordinators change the relationship between the two cla ses0 4hat implications wo ld the se of 2!et2 or 2b t2 have on the meaning of the sentence0 COMPLEX SENTENCE A complex sentence has an independent cla se (oined b! one or more dependent cla ses. A complex sentence alwa!s has a s bordinator s ch as because, since, after, although, or when or a relative prono n s ch as that, who, or which. )n the following complex sentences# s b(ects are in !ellow# verbs are in green# and the s bordinators and their commas ,when re& ired. are in red.

A. 4hen he handed in his homework# he forgot to give the teacher the last page. *. "he teacher ret rned the homework after she noticed the error. C. "he st dents are st d!ing beca se the! have a test tomorrow. 5. After the! finished st d!ing# + an and /aria went to the movies. E. + an and /aria went to the movies after the! finished st d!ing. 4hen a complex sentence begins with a s bordinator s ch as sentences A and 5# a comma is re& ired at the end of the dependent cla se. 4hen the independent cla se begins the sentence with s bordinators in the middle as in sentences *# C# and E# no comma is re& ired. )f a comma is placed before the s bordinators in sentences *# C# and E# it is wrong. Note that sentences 5 and E are the same except sentence 5 begins with the dependent cla se which is followed b! a comma# and sentence E begins with the independent cla se which contains no comma. "he comma after the dependent cla se in sentence 5 is re& ired# and experienced listeners of English will often hear a slight pa se there. )n sentence E# however# there will be no pa se when the independent cla se begins the sentence. CO"P#E$ SENTENCES % &D'ECTI(E C#&)SES *inally, sentences containing ad&ective clauses (or dependent clauses are also comple' because they contain an independent clause and a dependent clause. The sub&ects, verbs, and subordinators are mar%ed the same as in the previous sentences, and in these sentences, the independent clauses are also underlined.

A. "he woman who,m. m! mom talked to sells cosmetics. *. "he book that +onathan read is on the shelf. C. "he ho se which AbrahA/ $incoln was born in is still standing. 5. "he town where ) grew p is in the 6nited States. Ad&ective 0lauses are studied in this site separately, but for now it is important to %now that sentences containing ad&ective clauses are comple'. CONCLUSION Are s re !o now know the differences between simple# compo nd# and complex sentences0 Click 76)C8 76)9 to find o t. "his & i' is ( st six

sentences. "he ke! is to look for the s b(ects and verbs first. Another $ui., this one about #elen 4eller contains ten sentences. These $ui. sentences based on the short story, The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen, by 5runo 6essing. 7uic% 7ui.: /hadrach After each & i'# click GRADE QUIZ to see !o r score immediatel!. :emember that with the skill to write good simple# compo nd# and complex sentences# !o will have the flexibilit! to ,;. conve! !o r ideas precisel! and ,<. entertain with sentence variet! at the same time= >ood l ck with these exercis

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Sentence Types In English we have four types of sentences: 1. . ". $. Simple Compoun! Comple# Compoun! % Comple#.

This has nothing to do with sentence length; rather these sentence types are created by the use of transition words (or the lack of transition words). 1. Simple Sentence a. Bob went to the store. b. Bob and Sue went to the store. c. Bob and Sue went to the store on the corner near the center of town to buy groceries and to get some drinks for the party. d. Bob went to the store and went to the postoffice. i. These sentences can be long, but when they are very long they tend to be difficult to read. . Compoun! sentences (two complete sentences !oined with a con&unction "and,# "but,# "or,# "so,# "yet,# and "for.# See $omma %ules.

Bob went to the store, an! Sue went to the office. $on!unction The negotiations were successful, so the diplomats returned to their homes. Con&unction &e can go to party, or we can go to the dance. Con&unction 'ote: &ords using con!uncts ' see Transition words ' bottom of the page are a kind of compound sentence. The negotiations ended successfully; therefore, the fighting stopped. Con&unct

(. Comple# sentences. These sentences use subordinators (see the list of words at the top of the transition word page)

(ecause the problem proved difficult, they decided to from a committee. Su)or!inator sentence sentence The proposal ) that * we wrote was accepted. Su)or!inator The issue, which we thought we had solved, came back to haunt us. Su)or!inator

+. Compoun! %Comple# Sentences. These sentences use a con!unction and a subordinator.

The proposal that we wrote was accepted, an! we started the pro!ect. Su)or!inator Con&unction