Types of sentences What is a sentence?

Simple sentence
This presentation explains the classification of
of sentences according to their structure. Compound sentence

You can navigate with the arrows that are

Complex sentence
above this presentation. You can also expand
the presentation by clicking on the arrows
Compound-complex sentences

End-notes
 A sentence What is a sentence?

A sentence is a group of words which expresses Simple sentence

a complete thought.
A sentence can consist of a singleclause
Compound sentence
(subject + verb)or several clauses.

Complex sentence
Examples:
The woman is reading the newspaper.
The woman is reading the newspaper because she is looking for a job.
As she wants to find a job, the woman is reading the newspaper. Compound-complex sentences
As she wants to find a job, the woman is reading the newspaper that she
bought this morning.

End-notes
 Simple sentence What is a sentence?

A simplesentencehasone independent clause. Simple

Simple sentence
sentence
It can include one or more subjects, and one or
more predicates.
Compound sentence

Examples:
The dog ate its food. Complex sentence
The dog and the cat ate their food and drank water.

Compound-complex sentences

End-notes
 Compound sentence What is a sentence?

A compound sentence joins two independent

Simple sentence
clauses or simple sentences.
These clauses are separated with a coordinating
conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, so, yet), or a Compound sentence
comma and a coordinating conjunction.
Complex sentence
Examples:
Boxers can be friendly dogs but they need to be trained.
Compound-complex sentences
[main clause] [conjunction] [main clause]

Boxers can be friendly dogs , but I dont like them.

End-notes
[main clause with a
[comma and
[main clause] different subject from the
conjunction]
first main clause]
 Complex sentence What is a sentence?

A complex sentence is formed by one

Simple sentence
independent clauseand one or more dependent
clauseswhich are sentences that cannot stand on
their own. Compound sentence
The dependent clauses act as adjectives, adverbs
or nouns. They all begin with a subordinating
Complex sentence
conjunction (after, because, if, that, when, etc.).

Examples: Compound-complex sentences

The dog ate all the food because it was very hungry.
[Main clause] [dependent clause]

Boxers that have been trained can be very friendly. End-notes

[Subject of the [Verb and complement of
[dependent clause]
main clause] the main clause]
 Compound-complex sentence What is a sentence?

A compound-complex sentence is formed by

Simple sentence
three or more clauses.
At least two of these clauses are independent,
and one is a dependent clause. Compound sentence

Example: Complex sentence

, but it can
My dog is very because it has if it is
become
friendly been trained provoked. Compound-complex sentences
Compound-complex sentence
aggressive
[independent
[subordinate
clause joined by a
[main clause: [subordinate dependent
comma and
indepent clause] dependent clause] clause] End-notes
coordinating
clause]
 End-notes What is a sentence?

Remember that even though there can be three or more

clauses in a sentence all of them have to express just one Simple sentence
complete thought.
Example:
The woman bought a newspaper, and now she is reading it
Compound sentence
because she is looking for a job.
(A compound-complex sentence: It is about the woman)

Complex sentence
If there are different thoughts they have to be separated
by a period to form different sentences. (In the TOEIC
exam you have to write only ONE sentence)
Compound-complex sentences
Example:
The woman bought a newspaper, and now she is reading it because she is
looking for a job. This newspaper has a complete section of job
advertisements
End-notes
(Two sentences divided by a period: One about the woman; the other about
the newspaper.)