SENTENCE STRUCTURE

Simple Sentences

            A sentence has two basic parts, the subject and the predicate.

Subject    Predicate

Actors     spoke.

           The actors on the stage             spoke their lines with emotion    

            All of the parts of a sentence may be compound.  That is, they may have more  than one part. 

Compound Subject                 The coach and the team discussed strategy.

Compound Verb                     The girls talked and laughed.

Compound Object                  The store accepts cash or credit.

Compound Sentences

            Sometimes two sentences are so closely related in thought that you join them together.  Then you have a different kind of sentence.  You have a sentence that has more than one subject and more than one predicate.  This is called a compound sentence.

A compound sentence consists of two or more simple sentences joined together.

Ex: My cats are cute, but they often behave badly

Ex: I came, I saw, I conquered.

Complex Sentences

A complex sentence contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

My father gave me the ring that belonged to my mother.

When she arrived at the station, the train that she had planned on taking had already left.

I don’t know what you mean.