English Grammar for the Utterly Confused - Laurie Rozakis 2003
The Four Different Sentence Types
Chapter 8 Writing Correct and Complete Sentences
Part 3 Sentence Sense
In Chapter 7, you reviewed independent and dependent clauses. These word groups can be used in a number of ways to form the four basic types of sentences: simple, compound, complex, compound-complex. Let’s look at these sentence types now.
1. Simple sentences
A simple sentence has one independent clause. That means it has one subject and one verb—although either or both can be compound. In addition, a simple sentence can have adjectives and adverbs. What a simple sentence can’t have is another independent clause or any subordinate clauses.
Just because a simple sentence seems “simple” doesn’t mean that it isn’t powerful. It is. For instance, Noble Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway crafted a powerful style using mainly simple sentences. In the following excerpt from his book A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway uses the simple sentence to convey powerful emotions. The simple sentences are in italic:
My knee wasn’t there. My hand went in and my knee was down to my shin. Passini was dead. That left three. Someone took hold of me under the arms and someone else lifted up my legs.
“There are three others,” I said. “One is dead.”
“It’s Manera. We went for a stretcher but there wasn’t any. How are you, Tenente?”
“Where are Gordini and Gavuzzi?”
“Gordini’s at the post getting bandaged. Gavuzzi has your legs. Hold on to my neck, Tenente. Are you badly hit?”
2. Compound sentences
A compound sentence has two or more independent clauses. The independent clauses can be joined in one of two ways:
• With a coordinating conjunction: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
• With a semicolon (;)
As with a simple sentence, a compound sentence can’t have any subordinate clauses.
You may also add a conjunctive adverb to this construction. The following words are conjunctive adverbs:
The sentence construction looks like this:
independent clause; conjunctive adverb, independent clause
Quick Tip
Don’t join the two parts of a compound sentence with a comma because you will end up with a type of run-on sentence called a comma splice. More on this later in this chapter.
3. Complex sentences
A complex sentence contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. The independent clause is called the main clause. These sentences use subordinating conjunctions to link ideas. The subordinating conjunctions include such words as: because, as, as if, unless, provided that, if, even if.A complete list of subordinating conjunctions appears in Chapter 7.
4. Compound-complex sentences
A compound-complex sentence has at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. The dependent clause can be part of the independent clause.
