Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences

Examples taken from www.eslbee.com

A Simple Sentence:

   is an independent clause contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought Examples:   Some students like to study in the morning.

Juan and Arturo play football every afternoon  Alicia goes to the library and studies everyday.

A Compound Sentence:

  Contains 2 independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS) Examples:    I tried to speak English, and my friend tried to speak Spanish.

Alexander played football, so Maria went shopping.

Alexander played football, for Maria went shopping.

A Complex Sentence:

   has an independent clause joined by one or more dependent clauses always has a subordinator such as

because, since, after, although,

or

when

OR a relative pronoun such as that, who or

which

Examples:

 When he handed in his homework, he forgot to give the teacher the last page.

More Complex Sentence examples:

    The teacher returned the homework after she noticed the error.

The students are studying because they have a test tomorrow.

After they had finished studying, Juan and Maria went to the movies.

Juan and Maria went to the movies after they had finished studying.

FYI (For Your Information) don’t worry about it now, but be aware they exist…   There are also Compound-Complex sentences. They contain at least 1

dependent clause

and 2 or more

independent clauses

.

Examples:  Even if you fail ,

at least you tried

, and

you’re a better person for it

.



The dog lived in the backyard

, but

the cat

, who thought she was superior ,

lived inside the house.