Sentence Structure

Sentence Fragments

• Incomplete sentences • Have become disconnected from the main clause in

some way• Purdue offers many majors in engineering. Such as

electrical, chemical, and industrial engineering. • Coach Dietz exemplified this behavior by walking off the

field in the middle of a game. Leaving her team at a time when we needed her.

Clauses

• Dependent- Cannot stand alone, does not make sense by itself

• Independent- Stands alone, makes sense by itself • You vs Your Parents

Simple Sentences

• One independent clause• Has ONE SUBJECT and ONE VERB• Either, or both, the subject and / or verb, can be compound• Kayla and Ally talk and laugh.• Noah reads a book.

Sentence Sort

Sentence Sort

Sentences • Finding a parking space

there is usually easy during the week.

• Who borrowed Stephanie’s car Saturday night?

• While living there, he made very few friends.

• Shaking his ne boss’s hand, Tony knew he would like working there.

Fragments• While waiting for her neighbor to

move the car that blocked the driveway

• Driving in the city during the evening rush hour

• Asking the interviewer how often he would have to work on the weekend

• By making sure no one will park across the driveway again

• Many of his customers coming back three or four times over the summer

Compound Sentences

• Consists of two or more independent clauses• Can be joined in THREE ways:• With a coordinating conjunction and a comma• For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so (FANBOYS)

• With a semicolon• With a coordinating conjunction• Independent clause; coordinating conjunction, independent

clause

Complex Sentences

• An independent clause joined by one or more dependent clauses

• The independent clause is the main clause• These sentences use subordinating conjunctions to link

ideas• The subordinate conjunctions establishes the relationship

between the dependent and independent clauses.

Common Subordinating Conjunctions

afteralthoughasas ifas long asas thoughbecausebeforeeven ifeven though

ifif onlyin order thatnow thatoncerather thansinceso thatthanthat

thoughtillunlessuntilwhenwheneverwherewhereaswhereverwhile

Complex –Compound Sentences

• Has at least two independent clauses and one dependent clause

• The dog barked. • Leaning first this way and then that, the large tan dog with a

wide black collar barked loudly at the full moon last night from under the lilac bush in the shadow of the north side of the house.

• The dog and the cat howled. • The dog howled and barked. • The dog barked, and the cat yowled. • The dog howled although he was well fed. • Because the dog howled so loudly, the student couldn't eat his

hamburger. • The dog, although he was well fed, howled loudly. • As the dog howled, one cat sat on the fence, and the other licked

its paws.

• Pauline and Bruno have a big argument every summer over where they should spend their summer vacation.

• Pauline loves to go to the beach and spend her days sunbathing.

• Bruno, on the other hand, likes the view that he gets from the log cabin up in the mountains, and he enjoys hiking in the forest.

• Pauline says there is nothing relaxing about chopping wood, swatting mosquitoes, and cooking over a woodstove.

• Bruno dislikes sitting on the beach; he always gets a nasty sunburn.

• Bruno tends to get bored sitting on the beach, watching the waves, getting sand in his swimsuit, and reading detective novels for a week.

• This year, after a lengthy, noisy debate, they decided to take separate vacations.

• Bruno went to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and Pauline went to Cape Cod.

• Although they are 250 miles apart, they keep in constant contact on the internet.

• Bruno took the desktop computer that he uses at work, and Pauline sits on the beach with her laptop computer, which she connects to the internet with a cellular phone.