3 Different Ways to Combine Sentences | Combining Sentences

hi everyone in this video i want to show you how to combine sentences using three common connectors but before i start talking about those connectors i think it's important to talk about what a clause is now i know that's an intimidating word i actually hated that word when i was in school because i couldn't understand what it was my teachers would just throw that word out as if i understood what it was i had no idea so i just put up a wall didn't know what it was so let me try to explain it a clause is a group of words that has inside of it a subject and a verb okay and some of those clauses can be by themselves and some of them can't let me just show you what i'm talking about all right so like i said a clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb inside of it what the heck is a subject and a verb okay let's see english is an international language all right who or what is a sentence about if you can answer that question you have found the subject who or what is the sentence about english that's who or what this sentence is about english is an international language english is the focus of the sentence therefore english is the subject of the sentence now what is the subject being or doing well it's not doing anything but it is is it is isn't it's it is right so here we have the verb usually the verb is an action jump write talk and something you can see happening but sometimes it's not sometimes it's a state verb like be become no right okay so here we have a group of words with a subject and a verb and this group of words happens to make sense by itself it happens to be a complete sentence it happens to have a complete idea english is an international language boom done period makes sense it can stand by itself to have a sentence be complete you need three things you need a subject you need a verb and you need a complete idea you don't need an object you just need to have those three things subject verb complete idea now that is also what makes up a clause a certain type of clause let's talk about those all right so there are different types of clauses independent and dependent now an independent clause has those elements that i just said an independent clause has a subject a verb and a complete idea it can stand by itself just like with that sentence i wrote earlier english is an international language jamie is talking about grammar that's a complete sentence too subject verb complete idea okay now a dependent clause dependent means that it can't be alone okay so it's still a clause so it still has a subject and a verb inside of it but it's not complete no no complete idea it does not have a complete idea so let me give you an example of that we know i said an independent clause is jamie is talking about grammar subject verb complete that dependent would be if i said even though jamie's talking about grammar that would be dependent because it has a subject jamie it has a verb is talking but it doesn't make sense because i said even though jamie's talking about grammar [Music] it's like it's not done okay so that's a dependent clause now they're both beautiful clauses nice great things to add into your writing the only thing you need to know is that you can never have a dependent clause stand alone by itself what does that mean that means you can never just put a dependent clause with a period at the end like this even though jamie's talking about grammar period no that's a fragment that's a na that's an error you don't want to have that okay so you can't put a period that's what we say that's what we mean when we say you can't stand alone it can't be by itself you can't put a period after a dependent clause what you can do is combine it to other types of clauses and that's what we're going to talk about in this video how to combine all kinds of different clauses to each other in three different ways the first way is by using coordinating conjunctions coordinating conjunctions don't worry you don't ever have to know the name of that thing you just need to remember fanboys if you can remember fanboys you'll remember what the coordinating conjunctions are and they are for and nor but or yet so these are the words that we use to combine two independent clauses you heard that right independent clauses that means two sentences that can stand on their own we combine them with one of these and a comma let me show you how here's the formula one independent clause plus the comma plus one of the fanboys whichever one makes sense plus another independent clause don't forget an independent clause is a subject verb complete thought let's just go with my example i was using before just to make it easy all right here jamie is talking about grammar that's my first independent clause has a subject it has a verb it has a complete thought then i add my comma right fanboy i'm going to use but it's probably the most common one but and those ones and then i have my second independent clause it is confusing okay there we go works jamie's talking about grammar but it's confusing i know it is okay now thing you want to know about fanboys when you're using these to combine two sentences is that what you're doing is you're making this sentence and the sentence balance they're balanced they're even okay they're both independent clauses let's talk about the next kind okay the second kind are the subordinating conjunctions these are the types of conjunctions that we use when we want to create a complex sentence or in other words when we use these types of conjunctions we have to be careful because the clause that comes after one of these types of conjunctions is subordinate that's why it's called subordinating conjunction because whatever comes after that conjunction is below and by below sub sub i mean not independent it can't be by itself it needs help okay so let's look at it let's look at what those conjunctions are first off was bit by the way i like to say was bit it's like saying fanboy except for it's for the subordinating conjunction so if you can just remember was bit you'll remember just like you remember fanboys for coordinating conjunctions you'll remember what the subordinating conjunctions are so when while and whereas or for the w a stands for as or although s stands for sense b stands for b for because i stands for if and the t stands for though or even though though right okay so let's look at how this works all right so here we are even though jamie is talking about grammar there's my first clause i am still confused there's my second clause now if i were to just stop right here even though jamie's talking about grammar it wouldn't be complete because it started with that subordinating conjunction so when you start a sentence with the subordinating conjunction what you've done is you've created this whole thing becomes a dependent clause right like we talked about before it has a subject it has a verb but it doesn't have a complete thought so instead of a period here you need a comma okay so got that whenever you start a sentence with the was bit whenever you start with any of these words you put a comma not a period and then you finish your idea with a complete sentence or an independent clause in this case i said i'm still confused because it shows contrast even though jamie's talking about grammar i'm so confused you could throw any of these words on here as long as it makes sense right so i could say because right because jamie's talking about grammar i am confused not still i am because jane is talking about grandma i am confused right so that works too um you could also start with this one and end with that one i'm confused because jamie's talking about grammar when you're using these subordinating conjunctions to combine sentences i just want to point out that if you start with one of these words if your sentence starts with one then make sure you use a comma okay but if your sentence starts with the independent clause and then in the middle of the sentence has the word because or any other was bit you don't need a comma like in this example i am confused because she's talking about grammar see here we have the was bit in the middle so we don't need a comma i know people love to put commas before because but really you don't need commas before because or any uh was bit really i mean there's some but it's not a big deal okay so i'm confused because she's talking about grammar here i have the same exact idea except for i started with i didn't start with the was bit i put the was bit in the middle so i just don't need a comma this is a nice way to make a complex sentence i highly recommend using subordinating conjunctions okay the third type of conjunction i want to talk about are conjunctive adverbs okay so with that one i like to tell students to remember hot shot mama cat h is for however o is for otherwise t's for therefore s is for similarity h is for hence o on the other hand t thus m moreover a additionally m meanwhile a also c consequently a in addition and t then look if you don't remember all those no big deal you could just remember hotshot and that'll get you started the point is that these types of conjunctive adverbs whatever these types of conjunctions are the type that you use with the semicolon they're the ones that start a new sentence okay so let's look at my other sentence my example sentence so here we are we have two sentences jamie is talking about grammar independent clause however i'm still confused another independent clause we can combine these together using one of these hot shot mama cat conjunctive adverbs okay and i've used however okay so i'm just gonna point out that i've used however however shows contrast now two ways you could do this you could use a period and a capital h but i always like to tell students to use a semicolon in this case so if you're going to use a semicolon you need a lower case here a lower case and then you're going to put the semicolon it's a comma and a period together when you use conjunctive adverbs you are making them also both um balanced whereas with subordinating conjunctions they weren't even one was independent one was dependent that's the three i wanted to talk about in this video there are more types of conjunctions specifically correlative conjunctions i think i have a video on it called um for parallel structure i talk about correlative conjunctions a lot but these three are the main kind if you want to look at how to combine your sentences with the proper punctuation follow these and that's it make sure you just follow those comma rules and use the right the right conjunction hope this was helpful bye

Channel: Breaking English

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Keywords: 3 Different Ways to Combine Sentences, grammar, sentence, Different Ways to Combine Sentences, learn english, Ways to Combine Sentences, Breaking English, Ways to combining sentences, sentence combining, sentence connectors, conjunctions, clauses, clause, coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, learn english grammar, connecting clauses, connectors, anglais, inglese, inglés, англи́йский, inglês, angielski, anglicky, αγγλικά, essay, combining sentences

Id: GkVbD6mKP3w

Length: 12min 9sec (729 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021