A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense. The simplest sentence consists of just one clause. Examples are given below.
- My sister is a doctor. (subject + verb + subject complement)
- She works in a government hospital. (subject + verb + prepositional phrase)
- She specializes in neurology. (subject + verb + prepositional phrase)
- She works hard. (subject + verb + adverb)
- She rarely gets free time. (subject + adverb + verb + object)
A sentence can consist of more than one clause. The number of clauses in a sentence is equal to the number of finite verbs in it. When there are two or more clauses in a sentence, we have to connect them with a conjunction or relative pronoun. Note that we use just one conjunction/relative pronoun to connect two clauses.
- My sister works in a busy hospital. She gets hardly any free time.
We can combine these two clauses/sentences with the conjunction because. So, we get:
- My sister gets hardly any free time because she works in a busy hospital.
We can also combine these two sentences using the conjunction as.
- As my sister works in a busy hospital, she gets hardly any free time.
Note that the conjunctions as, since and because show the reason.
It is also possible to connect the two sentences given above with a relative pronoun. Relative pronouns are words like who, whom, whose, which, that etc.
- My sister, who works in a busy hospital, hardly gets any free time.
Simple sentence
A sentence that consists of just one clause is a simple sentence. Examples are given below.
- Rahul runs a store in town.
- There is a library in my village.
- Your sister has got a beautiful smile.
- She earns a hefty salary.
Complex sentence
A complex sentence has one independent clause and one or more dependent/subordinate clauses.
Examples are given below.
- I want to know why you don’t talk to me.
- I took the offer because it was too good to resist.
- We will start as soon as they arrive.
- If you need help, feel free to call me.
- We regret to inform you that we do not have any vacancies at the moment.
- I will call the police if you do not leave at once.
- She disturbed me while I was working.
- I am quite fond of the old woman who lives next doors.
- The restaurant where we celebrated my birthday last week is a nice place.
- Although we had reserved a table, we had to wait for an hour.
We use a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun to connect the clauses in a complex sentence.
Compound sentence
A compound sentence has two or more coordinate clauses of equal rank connected by a coordinating conjunction.
- My wife didn’t enjoy the movie, but I liked it a lot.
- He is neither greedy nor ambitious. (He is not greedy. He is not ambitious.)
- You should take him to the hospital at once or he will die.
