{"id":76,"date":"2017-03-25T20:32:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-25T20:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/education\/?page_id=76"},"modified":"2017-03-25T20:32:14","modified_gmt":"2017-03-25T20:32:14","slug":"the-trouble-with-compound-and-complex-sentences","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/education\/the-trouble-with-compound-and-complex-sentences\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble With Compound and Complex Sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"

This page was first published on the 25th of March, 2017 and last updated on the 25th of March, 2017 by Patrick Carpen.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I mentioned in my article “Why Students Fail English” that the English textbooks do a lousy job of clarifying certain concepts in the English Language. One such case is Compound and Complex Sentences, which I will address here.<\/p>\n

We are told that a sentence is compound when it contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction: and, or, but, yet etc.<\/p>\n

For example. I wanted to go but I didn’t have any money.<\/p>\n

So, a sentence is compound because it contains two independent<\/em> clauses.<\/p>\n

First, let me define the clause for you: a group of words that contain a subject and a verb.<\/p>\n

Let me define independent clause: a clause that makes sense by itself.<\/p>\n

Dependent clause: a clause that relies on an independent clause to complete its meaning.<\/p>\n

So we are told that the sentence: I wanted to to but I didn’t have any money, is a compound sentence.<\/p>\n

Here is the breakdown:<\/p>\n

I wanted to go: independent clause<\/p>\n

but: coordinating conjunction<\/p>\n

I didn’t have any money: independent clause.<\/p>\n

Fair enough.<\/p>\n

But let’s examine a complex sentence.<\/p>\n

We left when the game was over.<\/p>\n

We are told that this a complex sentence because it contains one principal clause and one dependent clause.<\/p>\n

We left: principal clause<\/p>\n

when: subordinate conjunction<\/p>\n

The game was over.<\/p>\n

Now tell if these two expressions don’t make sense by themselves:<\/p>\n

1. We left<\/p>\n

2. The game was over.<\/p>\n

Of course they do.<\/p>\n

So why label it a complex and not a compound sentence?<\/p>\n

It’s a whole new ball game.<\/p>\n

I think they should explain first of all that complex sentences are joined only by subordinate conjunctions and LIST exactly what the subordinate conjunctions are.<\/p>\n

UP NEXT:<\/p>\n

What really is theme in literature?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This page was first published on the 25th of March, 2017 and last updated on the 25th of March, 2017 by Patrick Carpen. I mentioned in my article “Why Students Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Trouble With Compound and Complex Sentences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Patrick Carpen explains the trouble with compound and complex sentences and why students have a hard time grasping the concept of these sentence patterns.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/education\/the-trouble-with-compound-and-complex-sentences\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Trouble 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I can say that a clause is a principal clause if it makes sense by itself. I can also say that the clause is \"independent.\" So,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Teaching English"","block_context":{"text":"Teaching English","link":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/education\/blog\/category\/teaching-english\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/patrickcarpen.com\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2018\/10\/eb34b90f2bf0073ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d119b6174896f9c2_640_sun.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/patrickcarpen.com\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2018\/10\/eb34b90f2bf0073ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d119b6174896f9c2_640_sun.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/patrickcarpen.com\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2018\/10\/eb34b90f2bf0073ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d119b6174896f9c2_640_sun.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":70,"url":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/education\/why-students-fail-english\/","url_meta":{"origin":76,"position":1},"title":"Why Students Fail English","author":"Patrick Carpen","date":"March 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This page was first published on the 23rd of March, 2017 and last updated on the 23rd of March, 2017 by Patrick Carpen. Have you ever wondered why so many students suck at English? It's because English sucks; and when something sucks, you suck back at it; and that's the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135,"url":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/education\/illustrating-abstract-concepts\/","url_meta":{"origin":76,"position":2},"title":"Illustrating Abstract Concepts…","author":"Patrick Carpen","date":"February 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Illustrating abstract concepts in concrete ways is a key skill in being a teacher or an educator. If you're not gifted enough to do this naturally, seek help. But by no means resort to telling the student that his head or hard. 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