Complex Sentences

Complex Sentences

How do you vary sentence structure? You will want to use a variety of sentence structures in your writing. There are three types of sentences. • Simple Sentence • Compound Sentence • Complex Sentence

Independent and Dependent Clauses • A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb. There are two kinds of clauses in English: • An independent Clausehas a subject-verb pair and expresses a complete thought. It can stand alone as a sentence. It is another name for a simple sentence: • John walked down the dusty road. • Paris has excellent art museums. • We finished our homework.

Independent and Dependent Clauses 2. A dependent Clauseit cannot be a sentence because it does not express a complete thought. It can NOT stand alone as a sentence. It MUST be joined to an independent clause. It begins with a subordinating word, such as since, after, when, while, as soon as, although, before, because, until, whenever, etc. • While we were watching the film • As soon as Ahmed arrived • After she finished her homework • Because it was cold and rainy

Activity 1: Decide if the following is independent or dependent clause: 3. The exercise wakes up my body and clears my mind 4. It's hard to do this in the winter 5. When I go to work 6. It is still dark 7. After I get home from work 8. It is dark again 9. I can always take a walk on weekends, even in the winter 10. When it is raining, of course 11. I never go out 12. On rainy days, as soon as the alarm clock rings 13. I turn over and go back to sleep

Complex Sentences A complex sentencecontains at least one independent clause and one (or more) dependent clause. John cannot focus on his study because there is so much noise outside. Independent Clause Subordinating Conjunction Dependent Clause

Complex Sentences She will go to college in the city after she finds a job. Independent Clause Subordinating Conjunction Dependent Clause

Complex Sentences When the dependent clause comes first, use a comma. When I first moved to the city, I was afraid to drive in the crowded narrow streets. Subordinating Conjunction Independent Clause

Activity 2: Identify the dependent clause in each COMPLEX sentence. 1. Because it was raining, the game was called off. 2. When I feel sick, I do not go to school. 3. Mark is not going since I never invited him. 4. If you want a pizza, you need to order it now. 5. The students worked on the test problems until the teacher told them to stop. 6. As soon as the teacher told them to stop writing they put down their pencils. 7. Since noise can change the heart rate and increase blood pressure, it is harmful to the body.

Activity 3: Join the following sentences to form complex sentences: • Jim ran all the way to school. Jim was late this morning. • We won’t be able to play. The crowd stops shouting. • The men always have to wait in a line. The line is long. • I think about my third grade teacher. I have a warm feeling inside. • The milk spoiled. It was two weeks old. • He was upset about his toy. It was broken.

7. The play started. We were not allowed to talk. 8. Loud noise is especially harmful. It damages the ear drums. 9. He handed in his homework. He forgot to hand the teacher the last page. 10. The teacher returned the homework. She noticed the error. 11. They finished studying. Jack and Maria went to the movies. 12. The students were silent. The teacher handed out the test.

Activity 4: Write a dependent clause that turns the simple sentence into a complex sentence: [because – after – as – when – since – once – whenever] 1. __________________________, you can go to the movies on Saturday. 2. We talked on the phone for hours______________ 3. We had a hard time finding our way home_______ __________________________________________. 4. _____________________________, I asked my teacher to check it for mistakes. 5. ________________________________, we had to be home before midnight. 6. The police searched every house ______________ __________________________________________.

Write three complex sentences using time and reason subordinators

I’m Sorry! These sentence do not read as smoothly. These sentences contain no sentence variety. I love living in the city. I have a wonderful view of the entire city. I have an apartment. I can see the Golden Gate Bridge. I can see many cargo ships pass under the bridge each day. I like the restaurants in San Francisco. I can find wonderful food from just about every country. I don’t like the traffic in the city. Simple Sentences

Correct! Excellent! This sentence reads more smoothly because it has more sentence structure variety. Simple Sentences Complex Sentence I love living in the city of San Francisco. I have a wonderful view of the entire city from my apartment window. In addition, I can see the Golden Gate Bridge under which many cargo ships pass each day. I also like San Francisco because I can find wonderful restaurants with food from just about every country; however, I don’t like the traffic in the city. Compound/Complex Sentence

The music star was young. He was dressed in a red shirt and blue jeans. Everyone looked at him. He knew they were looking at him. He smiled shyly. He grasped the microphone. He sang two songs. He wrote these songs himself. His fans were delighted. They greeted him with cheers and screams.

Complex Sentence Everyone looked at the young music star who was dressed in a red shirt and blue jeans. He knew they were looking at him, so he smiled shyly. When he grasped the microphone, he sang two songs. He wrote these songs himself. His fans were delighted, so they greeted him with cheers and screams. 1- Rewrite the following paragraph by joining simple sentences into complex and compound ones: Compound sentence Compound sentence

It was a dark and stormy night. The wind was high. The trees waved and crashed against the caravan. I looked around me. I saw that I wasn’t alone. A man stood behind me. He was tall. He was mean. He had a knife. It was shining in the moonlight. He reached back. He stabbed with it. I jumped out of the way. I ran away.

Complex Sentences