Comprehensive Guide on Compound & Complex Sentences

You are often asked to write simple sentences in your academic assignments. The key motive of expecting simple sentences is to encourage you to write lines that are understandable and not complex. However, sentences are not just simple. There can be different sentences, including compound and complex. For students learning English, this remains an important topic to understand the difference between the two and learn to use them when need be. Here in this blog, we focus on simply explaining the difference between a compound and a complex sentence.

Compound and complex sentences

A complex sentence is the one which has an independent clause along with a dependent clause. One of the easiest examples of a complex sentence is -

I laughed when I heard a joke.

This is an example of a complex sentence in which I laughed is an independent clause, but I heard a joke is a dependent clause. I heard a joke, so I laughed due to which laughing depends on hearing jokes.

A compound sentence is the one which comprises two independent clauses. There is no need for a dependent clause in this compound sentence. In compound sentences, it associates the clauses with coordinating conjunction and a semicolon. One example of a compound sentence is:

I am punctual, but this time I got later.

So this is a compound sentence as ‘I am punctual’ is an independent clause and ‘this time I got late’ is another compound sentence. The conjunction used here is ‘this.’

Here we can explain the difference between the two types of the sentence clearly.

It is the use of clauses that makes the sentences different. Using an independent clause makes the sentences complex. However, the use of a dependent and independent clause makes the sentence compound.

Acing different sentences

Now that you are clear with different sentences, then there is a need to explore different ways to ace the sentences.

• Understand the type of sentence you need: the first step is to examine the type of sentence you need. There is a need to ensure that you understand the type of sentence well. If it’s a complex sentence, you need to focus on using dependent and one independent clause. If it’s a complicated sentence, then you need to focus on using two independent clauses.
• Practice as much as possible: You can understand different sentences not just by theory or reading, but you need to practice it as much as possible. There is a need to focus on practising the language as much as possible.
• Using in actual life: You can choose to learn sentences by using these sentences in your speech so that you can understand their applicability well.

These are some types of sentences that can be used in developing different sentences and also differentiating them.

Note: This blog is by Online Assignments Help