Sentence Structure: Simple, Compound, Complex, Compound-Complex Sentences

Simple Sentence (Independent Clause)

Contains a subject and a verb and forms a complete thought Example: She ate the cheeseburger.

Subordinating conjunctions (AAAWWUUBBIS)

Introduce a subordinate (dependent) clause After, As, Although, When, While, Unless Until, Because, Before, If, and Since

Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS)

Join together words, phrases, or clauses: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

Compound Sentence

Two independent clauses joined together by a comma and a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS) Example: She ate the cheeseburger, AND he ate the fries.

Relative Pronouns

Also introduce subordinate (dependent) clauses That , Which, Who, Whom, and Whose.

Compound Sentence

Example: They went to Disney World, and they watched the fireworks from Cinderella's castle.

Compound-Complex Sentence

Example: We wanted to go to Disney World, but we couldn't because it was raining too hard.

Complex Sentence

Example: When they went to Disney World, they saw all the princesses.

Dependent (Subordinate) Clause

Has both a subject and a verb but cannot stand alone as a complete sentence; begins with a subordinate conjunction (AAAWWUUBBIS) or relative pronoun (That, Which, Who, Whom, Whose)

Complex Sentence

Has one or more dependent clauses and one independent clause Example: After we went shopping, we went to Starbucks for coffee.

Compound-Complex Sentence

Has two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses Example: After we went shopping, we went to Starbucks, and we ordered two pumpkin spice lattes.