This document defines and provides examples of simple, compound, and complex sentences. Simple sentences contain one independent clause with a subject and verb. Compound sentences join two independent clauses with a coordinator like "and" or "but." Complex sentences contain an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses joined by a subordinating conjunction like "because" or "when." The purpose is to help ESL/EFL learners identify basic sentence structures.

1. Simple,compound
and complex
sentences.
What are they?
By: Luis

2. Introduction:
 Experienced writers use a variety of
sentences to make their writing interesting
and lively. Too many simple sentences, for
example, will sound choppy and immature
while too many long sentences will be difficult
to read and hard to understand.
 This presentation contains definitions of
simple, compound, and complex sentences
with many simple examples. The purpose of
these examples is to help the ESL/EFL
learner to identify sentence basics.

3. SIMPLE SENTENCE
 A simple sentence,  A. Some students
also called an like to study in the
independent clause, mornings.
contains a subject  B. Steven and Bang
and a verb, and it play football every
expresses a afternoon.
complete thought. In  C. Emily goes to the
the following simple library and studies
sentences, subjects every day.
are in yellow, and
verbs are in green.

4. COMPOUND SENTENCE
 A compound sentence  A. I tried to speak
contains two independent Spanish, and my
clauses joined by a
coordinator. The friend tried to
coordinators are as follows:
for, and, nor, but, or, yet, speak English.
so. (Helpful hint: The first
letter of each of the  B. Lily played
coordinators spells
FANBOYS.) Except for football, so Tomi
very short sentences,
coordinators are always went shopping.
preceded by a comma. In
the following compound  C. Lily played
sentences, subjects are in football, for Tomi
yellow, verbs are in green,
and the coordinators and went shopping.
the commas that precede
them are in red.

5. COMPLEX SENTENCE
 A complex sentence has  A. When he handed in
an independent clause his homework, he forgot
joined by one or more to give the teacher the
dependent clauses. A last page.
complex sentence  B. The teacher returned
always has a the homework after she
subordinator such as noticed the error.
because, since, after,  C. The students are
although, or when or a studying because they
relative pronoun such as have a test tomorrow.
that, who, or which. In
the following complex  D. After they finished
sentences, subjects are studying, Emily and Lily
in yellow, verbs are in went to the movies.
green, and the  E. Grace and Jackie
subordinators and their went to the movies after
commas (when required) they finished studying.
are in red.