Sentence Structure
Why only use one, when there are
so many to choose from?
Simple Sentences
A simple sentence consists of only one clause. A
clause usually contains a subject and a
predicate. A predicate tells you something
about the subject, for example,
Mark is an athlete.
Mark is the subject and ‘is an athlete’ is the
predicate.
Which of the following are
simple sentences?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
I am hungry.
The door was locked.
I will always love you.
Chelsea win again!
Where were you?
They all were!
Each one had only a subject and a
predicate.
However, simple sentences are not always
short sentences. The following is a simple
sentence:
“In the 19th century the Count of Monte
Cristo and the three Musketeers presented
images of romantic heroism to the reader.”
It is simple as it is only about ONE subject.
Compound Sentences
Compound sentences consist of two or more
clauses where the clauses could also be separate
sentences. You would normally connect
compound sentences with a conjunction such as
‘but’ or ‘and’ or ‘or’
e.g.
She thought she had flu, but it was only a cold.
This could be separated into: She thought she
had flu. It was only a cold.
Which of the following are
compound sentences?
1. Every cloud has a silver lining.
2. I was tired before but I’m ok now.
3. I read all of the Narnia books and then went to
4.
5.
see it at the cinema too.
I got up to get a drink of water and a biscuit.
I went to FootLocker first before going on to
JD sports and then I saw my sister.
Complex sentences
A complex sentence is a sentence containing two
or more clauses. Usually only one of these
could be a sentence on its own e.g:
Jamaica, my favourite place, is beautiful in
August.
“Jamaica is beautiful in August.” could be a
sentence on its own, but “my favourite place” is
not.
Ways to vary your sentences…
There are a number of REALLY EASY ways
that you can vary your sentences:
1. Don’t always start with the subject.
Instead of “I walked slowly over to her”,
change it to “Slowly, I walked over to
her.”
2
If you find you have a lot of short sentences.
Combine some of them to make compound
sentences.
“The rain was falling heavily from the clouds
above. It was very dark.”
Would become:
“It was very dark and the rain was falling heavily
from the clouds above.”
3
Add additional detail to your sentences.
For example:
“I couldn’t see through the windscreen that
day.”
Could become:
“I couldn’t see through the windscreen that
day because of all the dust.”
4
Experiment with the order of words, for
example, instead of :
“I couldn’t see through the windscreen that
day because of all the dust.”
You could have:
“Because of all the dust, I couldn’t see
through the windscreen that day.”
You try
Rewrite the text you were given at the
beginning of the lesson to include a
variety of sentence structures.