Compound Sentences




Compound sentences are essentially two simple sentences - or main clauses - joined together by a link word.


A sentence can actually have two main clauses. And because they are main clauses, or independent clauses, neither clause depends on a word in the other clause.


It's really like writing two separate sentences on two separate pieces of paper and then joining them together with glue. The glue in this case are coordinating conjunctions.


Coordinating Conjunctions

Conjunctions are joining words. They join two clauses together to make two separate sentences into one big one. The clauses used to join main clause together are frequently and or but.


For example, 'The car started and we drove home.'


Or...


'It's a nice day today but tomorrow looks like it may rain.'


As we can see in both of the above examples, each clause could stand independently as a sentence. For instance, 'The car started,' is a complete sentence, as is, 'We drove home.'


The following pdf file is a free sentence guide in the form of a graphic organizer.


Sentence Guide
Right-click to download this PDF file here.


References

Andrews, R. Torgerson, C. Beverton, S. Freeman, A., Locke, T., Law, G., (2006) The effect of grammar teaching on writing development. British Educational Research Journal, 32, 39-55

Merrick, D. (2009) Blake's Grammar Guide for Primary Students. Pascal Press

Content Last Modified 8/11

Return from Compound Sentences to Syntax

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