English / Sentences
Which of these are sentences?
Click and select before checking whether your choices are correct.
Read the sentences and then decide whether they are a simple sentence, a compound sentence or a complex sentence. Explain why you have made the choices you have before checking whether you are correct.
Simple sentence -
these have one subject and one verb. They give one piece of information.
Compound sentence -
these are a series of simple sentences joined together using a simple connective. They have two or more verbs and give two or more pieces of information.
Complex sentence -
like compound sentences, complex sentences have two or more verbs and there are two or more pieces of information. The difference is that one part of the sentence is subordinate to the other.
Use the words to create compound sentences that make the most sense. Drag the boxes in the middle and right columns to match up with the text in the column on the left
A Complex sentence has a MAIN CLAUSE (one that makes sense on its own)
E.g. Carol was late for work again.
And a SUBORDINATE CLAUSE (one that doesn’t makes sense on its own)
E.g. Forgetting to set the alarm
Create your own Complex Sentences:
How can we move these boxes around to make a slightly different sentence?
Here’s some examples of Complex Sentences that use relative clauses in the middle, to add some extra information.
The tiger, whose teeth were big and sharp, stared at me menacingly.
The motorbike, which cost me three months wages, goes really fast.
My teacher, who is so very kind, let us out for break early.
Now, using these relative clauses in the middle, can you create three Complex Sentences of your own?
whose nose is very red,
which I didn’t like the look of,
that made me want to cry,
So how do authors use sentences?
Find examples of simple and complex sentences.
Not all short sentences are simple sentences. Can you find any examples of fragments?
Try to explain the effect created when using simple sentences such as: “I listened.”
“I felt something warm against my ankle and, looking down, saw that it was Spider, very close to me and gently licking my skin. When I stroked her, I realised that she was calm again, her body relaxed, her ears down. I listened. There was no sound in the house at all. After a while, I went back along the passage to the closed door. Spider came quite happily and stood obediently there, perhaps waiting for the door to be opened. I put my head close to the wood. Nothing. Absolute silence. I put my hand on the door handle, hesitated as I felt my heart again begin to race, but drew in several deep breaths and tried the door. It would not open, though the rattling of it echoed in the room beyond, as if there were no carpet on the floor. I tried it once more and pushed against it slightly with my shoulder. It did not give.
In the end I went back to bed. I read two further chapters of the Scott novel, though without fully taking in their meaning, and then switched out my lamp. Spider had settled again on the rug. It was a little after two o’clock.
It was a long time before I slept.”