Hi. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam.
Today's lesson is a writing lesson, but it's also a spoken English lesson.
It's about anything to do with English, because we're going to be looking at sentence types. Now, of course,
when you speak, you're using all kinds of sentence types. But, especially in writing,
it's important to know the different types of sentences, because, especially if you're
going to be writing tests, they want to see sentence variety. And even if you're not writing
tests, anything you write, if you're using only one type of sentence, your writing becomes
very bland, very boring, very hard to follow, because it's a little bit monotone. So what
you need to do is you need to vary... You need a variety of sentence structures in your
writing to give it a little bit more life. Okay? Luckily, you only need to know four sentence types.
We have simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex.
Now, this is not exactly easy, but it's not exactly hard, either. If you figure out what
you need to have in each one, in each sentence type, just make sure it's there.
Okay? Let's start. A simple sentence has one independent clause. A
little bit of review: What is an independent clause? An independent clause has a subject
and a verb, and can complete an idea. It can stand by itself, because the idea in that clause
is complete. I don't need to add anything else to it. Okay. A compound sentence has two or more
independent clauses, joined by a conjunction. A compound conjunction: "and", "but", "or", "so", "for"
(not very common), etc. So, we join two independent clauses with a compound conjunction. You can
have more, but again, you have to be a little bit careful. Once you get to three, start
to look for a way to finish your sentence, because if you get to the fourth, you already
have a crazy sentence that has the... Runs the risk of being a run-on sentence. Eventually,
you're going to make a mistake, you're going to miss something, and the whole sentence falls apart.
I don't recommend three, but you can put three. Then we have a complex sentence. A complex
sentence has one independent clause, plus one or more dependent clause. A dependent
clause is a clause that has a subject and a verb, but cannot stand by itself. It is not a complete idea.
It has some sort of relationship to the independent clause. We have three types
of dependent clauses. We have noun clauses, we have adjective clauses, and we have adverb clauses.
Okay? That's a whole separate lesson. You can look at that later. But you have to
have one of these, plus one of these, and you have a complex sentence. Next we have a compound-complex sentence. Here
you have two or more independent clauses, again, joined by a conjunction, and one or more
dependent clause. Okay? So you have basically all the elements in this sentence. Then, once you have all this stuff, you can
add as many complements, or basically extras, as you want. So, let's look at an example.
We're going to start with the simple sentence: "Layla studied biology." Very simple. I have a subject, I
have a verb, I have an object. Okay? This is a simple sentence. It's an independent
clause; it can stand by itself as a complete idea. Now, I can add anything I want to this
that is not another clause of any type, and it'll still be a simple sentence.
So I can say: "My friend Layla studied
biology in university." I'll just say "uni" for short. I have more
information, but do I have a different type of sentence? No. It's
still a simple sentence. Now, let's look at this sentence.
First, let me read it to you: "Even with the weather being that nasty, the couple and their
families decided to go ahead with the wedding as planned." Now you're thinking: "Wow, that's got to be
a complex sentence", right? "It's so long. There's so much information in it." But, if
we look at it carefully, it is still a simple sentence. Why? Because we only have one independent clause.
Where is it? Well, find the subject and verb combination first. So, what is the
subject in this sentence? I'll give you a few seconds, figure it out. Hit
the pause key, look at it. Okay, we're back. Here is the subject: "the couple and their families". Now, don't get confused with this "and". This is
not joining another clause to another clause. This is just joining one part of the subject to another
part of the subject. So here we have a compound subject, not a compound sentence. So one subject decided.
Subject, verb. Do I have any other subjects and verbs? Do I have any other verbs?
I have this verb, but this is an infinitive verb, right? A clause only has one tense verb.
You can have 10 verbs in a sentence, but only one will be the tense verb in the independent clause.
And what goes with this? Nothing. Okay. Oh, here's another verb, but it's not
really a verb; it's a participle. Okay? So now, here's my subject, here's my verb, here's my object.
This whole thing is the object to "decided". Decided what? To go ahead with
the wedding as planned. Even with the weather being that nasty. So all of this is what? This is a phrase.
It does not contain a subject, it does not contain a verb. Right? So here I
have a simple sentence with lots of additions to it. Okay? Very simple. The key is to recognize
what's involved in the sentence. You can have a very long sentence. As long as it only has
one subject-verb combination, it is a simple sentence. Okay? Let's look at a few of the
other ones now, and see how they work. Okay, so we're back. Let's look at the next set of examples.
Let's look at compound sentences. Compound sentences, I only gave you one example
here, because it's very straightforward. Have your independent clause, have your compound
conjunction, have another independent clause. "I arrived at the office at 9." I could put a period here, and
that's a complete sentence. "My assistant came 10 minutes later." This is
a complete sentence. Two independent clauses, all I'm doing is joining them with the conjunction "and".
But remember, I said you can have one, you can have two... Or you can have two, you
can have three independent clauses. I can add another one: "But she was sick so I
told her to go home." Now: "I arrived at the office at 9, and my assistant came
10 minutes later, but she was sick so I told her to come... To go home." How many independent
clauses do you count, here? One, two, three, four. Now, is this a good sentence? No, it's not.
Is it grammatically correct? Yes, it is. So this is okay, but I wouldn't recommend it. I
would split this into two sentences. I would put a period here, I would take
out the "but", I would say: "She was sick, so I told her to go home." I would just make it a whole two
separate ideas, instead of one joined idea. But again, that's up to you. I don't
recommend it, but it's grammatically okay. So is a... Also a conjunction. It is not an
adverb conjunction, it is a compound conjunction. Next, let's look at complex sentences. And
this is where people start getting a little bit scared, but you don't need to be. Just
remember: independent clause, dependent clause. "John retired." "John" is the subject, "retired" is
the verb, I have a complete idea. That's all I need to know. He doesn't work anymore.
But I want to give you more information. "John retired when he turned 65." So this is an adverb clause. Okay?
This whole thing is an adverb clause; it has its own subject and
verb, and it tells you something about the verb "retired". When did he retire? When he was...
When he turned 65. "Turned" means had his birthday. Okay? Now this is, again, this is a complex sentence.
It's much longer than this one, but it works in the same way. Let me read it to you: "Whether you agree with me or not makes
little difference to our investors, who, by the way, are the ones most
affected by whatever mistakes we make." Now you're thinking: "Well, that's a crazy sentence.
Where do I start?" Start with the independent clause, always. A little
bit trickier here, though. Okay? The easiest way to find your independent clause is first
find your tense verbs. Any verb that has a past, present, or future tense in any form,
find that first. "Agree". Okay, there's a subject here: "you agree". This is one combination
of subject-verb. "Or not", blah, blah, blah, "makes". Well, that "s" tells you that this
is a tense verb. Simple present. Okay, we'll figure out where the subject for it is. All right.
"Little difference to our investors". Makes what? "Who, by the way, are". So here's
another tense verb. And here's your subject for it. Okay? "The ones most affected by whatever
mistakes we make". And here's your last one. So now, you're thinking: "Okay, well, I have
subject-verb, I have subject-verb, I have subject-verb. Well, where's the verb...? Where's
the subject for this verb?" And here it is. Okay? This is a noun clause. Noun clauses
act as subjects or objects. Okay? So this is your whole subject, this is your verb.
"Little difference to our investors." Now, here, we have an adjective clause describing,
telling me something about investors, telling me a little bit extra
information about investors. "Who are the ones most
affected by", by what? And here we have another noun clause.
By what? "By whatever mistakes we make". "Whatever" is the object conjunction. So
"mistakes we make", these mistakes. So now, a little bit simpler, I hope, but
you still see: I have my independent clause with a noun clause in it, which already makes
it a complex sentence, but then I can add others. Okay? I can add as many as I need.
This is not a bad sentence, but, remember: If it's getting out of control... If you're
writing and it's... Your sentence is just too long, think about cutting it somewhere.
Cut it in two, cut it in three, but make it very clear. But at least keep one of the independent
clauses in there, so that you still have a complex sentence. Okay? Now, we're going to look at the complex-compound sentence.
Now, these can be very tricky, because you obviously have many clauses. You have to
identify each one. Let's look at an example. Okay, let's look at our last example. Now, I
know you're thinking: "Oh, wait a minute. That's too short. It can't be that complicated." It's not.
All the... All the elements that should be there are there.
First, let's read it: "Bill voted against the measure because
he felt that it wasn't strong enough, but he also offered to continue
discussions, which we will do next week." Now, what do I have here? I have
compound, means I have to have two independent clauses; and I have complex,
means I have to have at least one dependent clauses. So let's look at... For the first
independent clause. Again, look for a verb. A tense verb. "Voted". There's a subject, "Bill".
We have our subject-verb. "Against the measure", blah, blah, "he felt". So
here's a verb, here's another subject, but we know because of the "because", this is part of the
dependent clause. "It wasn't". Okay, there we have another verb, we have another subject.
We have "that" so that's another dependent clause. Oh, here's our conjunction. Okay?
"He", here's our subject, "offered". There's our... "He offered to continue discussions, which
we will do", so there's your... Another... Next subject-verb. So, let's break it down again. "Bill voted against the measure." Period.
There's a complete idea. Bill, "he", so: "Bill also offered
to continue discussions." Period. There's another complete idea. So: "Bill voted against the measure, but
he also offered to continue discussions." So there you have your compound. Now, we're
giving you a reason. So we have here an adverb clause with reason about why he voted against.
"Because he felt". Felt what? "That it wasn't strong enough". So here we have
a noun clause, acting as object to "felt." "He also offered to continue
discussions, which", so the discussions. "We will continue the
discussions next week." So, here, we have an adjective clause. So look
at that, I have all three types of dependent clause. I have two independent clauses with
a contrasting compound conjunction, and I have a compound-complex conjunction. So, don't be afraid of complex sentence structures.
Don't be afraid to have a variety of sentence structures in your writing. It will make your
writing better, it will make it more interesting, and if you're doing a test, if you're doing
the IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, GRE, GMAT, whatever, this will get you the points. Not doing this
won't get you the points that you need. Okay? If you need to ask any questions, go to www.engvid.com
and ask me in the comment section there. There will be a... There is a
quiz there right now, go do that. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube
channel, and I'll see you again soon. Bye.
