Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello Grammarians. Hello Paige. - [Voiceover] Hi David. - [Voiceover] I say hello to you and I say hello to the grammarians. - [Voiceover] That was an interesting thing to say. - [Voiceover] Yeah, it's cause there's a compound sentence. - [Voiceover] I see. - [Voiceover] So there's this distinction made in grammar, between simple and compound sentences. And today Paige, you and I are going to cover those differences. - [Voiceover] Let's do it. - [Voiceover] So, a simple sentence is really just what it says on the tin. A simple sentence consists of one subject and one predicate, and that's it. - [Voiceover] Right. - [Voiceover] So in the sentence, I bought my friends some candy, alright we got our one subject, I. And then we have our one predicate, bought my friends some candy. - [Voiceover] Mhmm. - [Voiceover] Now all of this together is what we call an independent clause. I don't wanna hit that too hard right now. But you know, when you have this set of subject and a predicate together, and it can be a sentence, that's called an independent clause. I'm not even gonna write that down. - [Voiceover] Yeah. - [Voiceover] But a compound sentence is basically two or more simple sentences joined together. So that would be two subjects plus two predicates. Or more, two, three, a bajillion. - [Voiceover] Sure. - [Voiceover] That would be a very long sentence to read, but you could do it, it would be a very very compound sentence. So I visited the beach and I got a really bad sunburn. When we're looking at this, this is really two sentences together, joined by the comma and this and. Alright, so we have our subject, I visited the beach, I got a really bad sunburn. And we have our two predicates, I visited the beach, got a really bad sunburn. - [Voiceover] So the subject in both these cases is I right, but it's sort of separate. It's like, I'm doing two different actions. - [Voiceover] Correct. - [Voiceover] What's important is even if it's the same subject, if it's I both times. Well I don't know how to say this, but just, if it were, I visited the beach and got a really bad sunburn. - [Voiceover] Then it would be a simple sentence. - [Voiceover] Then it's simple. - [Voiceover] Okay so Paige, I'm looking at this and I see I twice. What if I wanted to condense this sentence further? - [Voiceover] Okay. - [Voiceover] What does that give us? Is this a simple sentence or a compound sentence? Because this looks like what you would call a compound predicate. - [Voiceover] Right, since there's only one subject in this sentence, there's only I and it's only said once. Right, you don't have, I visited the beach and I got a really bad sunburn. That whole thing, visited the beach and got a really bad sunburn, is you're right, it is a compound predicate. - [Voiceover] But what you're saying is I couldn't divide this up into two sentences, unless I put in another subject. Right, you can say, I visited the beach, and that could be a sentence on its own. But you can't say, and got a really bad sunburn, as its own sentence. - [Voiceover] Okay, so both of these things are simple. So even though this is a compound predicate, it's technically one predicate. - [Voiceover] Right, it's -- - [Voiceover] And even if I'd written, Paige and I visited the beach and I got a really bad sunburn, that would still be a compound subject, but it wouldn't be two sentences squished together, it would be one kind of long sentence. - [Voiceover] Right. You can have a compound subject or a compound predicate, but that doesn't make it a compound sentence. What makes it a compound sentence, is you have two parts that can stand on their own as individual sentences, and they're sort of being put together. - [Voiceover] So let me change what I wrote here, to just say, instead of two subjects and two predicates. Cause I think that's confusing in light of this information, let's just say it is two simple sentences. - [Voiceover] Right, or two independent clauses. You know, that terminology. - [Voiceover] Or two, yeah. And if you don't, never fear, we'll cover it, and you can learn anything. David out. - [Voiceover] Paige out.
Have you ever wondered how to tell the difference between complex sentences and compound sentences? I struggled with this concept when I was learning grammar, and I know that you might be struggling with it as well.
But first, let me describe the issue so that we're all on the same page! Take a look at these two sentences.
1. I washed my hands, and I ate breakfast.
2. I washed my hands before I ate breakfast.
They differ by just one word (and/because), and that word changes the structure of the sentence.
One of those sentences is compound, and one of them is complex. How can you tell the difference? First, let's review what compound and complex sentences are.
Compound Sentences
Independent clauses are groups of words that have a subject and a verb, and can stand alone as complete thoughts. When we join two or more independent clauses together, we have a compound sentence.
She cooked and he cleaned. (Compound Sentence)
She cooked. (Independent Clause)
He cleaned. (Independent Clause)
and
(Coordinating Conjunction)
Did you notice that the independent clauses above are connected with a coordinating conjunction (and)?
All of the clauses in a compound sentence are equally important, and the coordinating conjunction does nothing to change the rank of the clauses. The clauses express related thoughts, and neither clause is more important structurally.
The only function of the coordinating conjunction is to connect the clauses and indicate a very simple relationship between them.
There are only seven coordinating conjunctions, and memorizing them is a fantastic idea. They are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. (Think FANBOYS.)
When we diagram compound sentences, we can really see the relationship between the clauses. We can see that the clauses have equal structural importance. Check it out.
Complex Sentences
These are formed from one
independent clause and at least one subordinate clause. This means that the clauses in a complex sentence are not structurally equal. The clauses express related thoughts, but one clause acts as the foundation of the sentence. Here's an example.
Complex Sentence --> My mom smiled when I made dinner.
Independent Clause --> My mom smiled.
Subordinate Clause --> when I made dinner
Subordinating Conjunction --> when
Subordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions connect certain types of subordinate clauses to independent clauses, and they actually subordinate - or demote - the clause that they are introducing. The function of the subordinating conjunction is to connect the clauses and indicate a dependent (complex) relationship between them. As you'll see below, the dependent clause actually modifies part of the independent clause.
Look at the subordinate clause when I made dinner. If we take away the subordinating conjunction when, it becomes the independent clause I made dinner. It might help to think of these conjunctions as "subordinators." Not only do they connect clauses, but they also subordinate the one that they are introducing!
There are many, many subordinating conjunctions, so
memorizing them would be a giant task. Here are a few examples for you: after, because, if, since, when, while.
Diagramming complex sentences helps us to understand the function of subordinating conjunctions. Diagrams make it easy to see that one clause is more important than the other.
You can see that the whole dependent clause is functioning as an adverb modifying smiled. You can see that the subordinating conjunction is connected to the subordinate clause. It is connecting the clauses, and it is subordinating the dependent clause.
Read more about complex sentences here.
Read more about subordinating conjunctions here.
Summary
When you're learning grammar, it's easy for complex and compound sentences to seem the same. This pretty much sums it up:
Blah blah blah CONNECTING WORD blah blah blah.Students are able to pick out the clauses (elegantly represented by blah blah blah in the example above), but they have trouble figuring out whether the sentence is compound or complex. They don't know enough about the word doing the connecting. That word is the key to the difference between compound and complex sentences.
I left out the last sentence of Udaya's question because she gave away the answer. Here it is.
Should I tell my students that a sentence's structure can be determined based on the type of conjunction it has?
Yes, that is exactly what you should tell them.
- If two clauses are connected with a coordinating conjunction, it's a compound sentence.
- If two clauses are connected with a subordinating conjunction, it's a complex sentence.
Tip: If you just memorize the seven coordinating conjunctions, you will easily know whether the conjunction is coordinating or subordinating. It's less work than trying to memorize the subordinating conjunctions as well.
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