in the english language there are four sentence structures these include simple sentences compound sentences complex sentences and compound complex sentences learn these four sentence structures to improve your speaking and writing skills before we go through the four sentence structures there are some key words you need to understand a clause is a group of words that function as one part of speech and that includes a subject and a verb there are two main types of clauses independent clause this is a sentence that contains a subject and a verb it can stand alone for example you will
succeed u is the subject and succeed is the verb this sentence makes sense on its own therefore it's an independent clause dependent clause this contains a subject and a verb but it cannot stand alone for example if you work hard the subject is you and the verb is work however the sentence does not make sense on its own as it's incomplete therefore it's a dependent clause it depends on something else in order for it to make sense subordinating conjunction these are conjunctions used to link dependent clauses to independent clauses for example if you work hard
you will succeed now let's go through the four sentence structures simple sentence a simple sentence contains at least one complete verb the verb must agree with the subject and show the tense of the sentence let's take a look at an example sally kicks the ball sally is the subject kicks is the verb and the tense used is the present tense let's take a look at some more examples of simple sentences ben forgot his homework tom kicked the ball i ate lunch emma waited for the train compound sentence a compound sentence consists of two independent clauses
joined together by a coordinating conjunction let's take a look at an example he was hungry this is an independent clause he cooked dinner this is also an independent clause we can now join the two independent clauses by using a coordinating conjunction using the coordinating conjunction so allows us to form the compound sentence he was hungry so he cooked dinner other examples of coordinating conjunctions include for and nor but or yet so here are some more examples of compound sentences i want to lose weight so i must eat healthy she is rich yet she is very
humble i'm hungry but i don't know what to eat complex sentence a complex sentence contains an independent clause and a dependent clause let's take a look at an example although the girl studied hard this is a dependent clause it does not make sense on its own she failed the exam this is an independent clause it does make sense on its own we can join the two together to form a complex sentence although the girl studied hard she failed the exam remember to add punctuation in the correct place when forming a complex sentence here are some
more examples of complex sentences although my friends begged me i chose not to go to the party whenever prices are reduced people buy more products many people enjoyed the movie however tim did not compound complex sentence a compound complex sentence contains at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause [Music] for example because i worked hard i got an a star on the test and i was so happy this is the dependent clause it does not make sense on its own these are examples of independent clauses they are sentences that could stand alone
the two are joined together by a coordinating conjunction this forms a compound complex sentence here are some more examples though my sister doesn't agree i am tall and she is short when i got to school my teacher asked me to get my homework out but i had forgotten it the woman needed a new car and she couldn't go to work until she got one here is a summary of the four sentence structures [Music] foreign
