Ingles

UNIVERSIDAD YACAMBU
FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE ESTUDIOS GENERALES

Guía Didáctica (Types of Sentences – Simple and Compound)

Elaborado por: Prof. Luis Chávez y Profa. RosanaChacón
Asignatura: Idioma Avanzado
SIMPLE SENTENCE
A simple sentence, also called an independent clause, contains a subject and a verb, and it expresses a complete thought. In the following simplesentences, subjects are in yellow, and verbs are in green.  
Examples:
Some students like to study in the mornings.
Juan and Arturo play football every afternoon.
Alicia goes to the library andstudies every day.
The three examples above are all simple sentences.  Note that sentence B contains a compound subject, and sentence C contains a compound verb.  Simple sentences, therefore,contain a subject and verb and express a complete thought, but they can also contain a compound subjects or verbs. 
COMPOUND SENTENCE
A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joinedby a coordinator. The coordinators are as follows: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. (Helpful hint: The first letter of each of the coordinators spells FANBOYS.) Except for very short sentences,coordinators are always preceded by a comma. In the following compound sentences, subjects are in yellow, verbs are in green, and the coordinators and the commas that precede them are in red. 
Examples:
Itried to speak Spanish, and my friend tried to speak English. 
Alejandro played football, so Maria went shopping. 
Alejandro played football, for Maria went shopping.
The above threesentences are compound sentences.  Each sentence contains two independent clauses, and they are joined by a coordinator with a comma preceding it.  Note how the conscious use of coordinators can change therelationship between the clauses.  Sentences B and C, for example, are identical except for the coordinators.  In sentence B, which action occurred first?  Obviously, "Alejandro played football"...