Letters represent sounds. Words are built from letters. A group of words makes a phrase. Add a subject and verb, and you have a clause. If that clause expresses a complete thought, we call it a sentence. But if that clause expresses an incomplete thought, it is called subordinate or dependent, and we have to attach it to a main clause, or it will not be considered Standard English. One complete sentence, or even a fragment or a word, can serve as a paragraph. More often, though, several sentences join together in a paragraph to develop a thesis or idea. And several paragraphs, sometimes many, are required to write an essay, report or chapter for a book. What an amazing process!
Ten sentences form that paragraph, and I wrote it, in part, to illustrate the basic variety of sentence structures. As an experienced reader and writer, I think of these distinctions less often than you might imagine, but they are necessary to produce correct and effective sentences with purposeful punctuation. At a more advanced level, they will provide you some reliable tools to make meaning and tune your style.
Here are the five basic sentence structures:
1. The intentional fragment: Expresses meaning without a subject and verb: “What a woman!” The reader completes the missing words that are understood: “I think she is a great woman.”
2. The simple sentence: This is a complete thought expressed in one clause: “Rome has fallen to the barbarians.” But a simple sentence can have more than one subject or verb: “Like a freight train, the fullback rumbled, tumbled and stumbled into the end zone.” And although a simple sentence can be very short (“Jesus wept.”), it can be infinitely long: “I like pizza, french fries, fried chicken, cheeseburgers, potato chips, pretzels, coconut custard pie …,” ad infinitum.
3. The complex sentence: This includes one independent clause and any number of dependent clauses: “Where there is no justice, there can be no peace.” That last clause can stand alone as a sentence, but the first one needs help.
4. The compound sentence: This sentence requires more than one independent clause linked in a variety of ways: “Madonna was once the holy name of a blessed virgin, but then came along a young Italian girl singer from suburban Detroit.” Either clause could stand alone. They can be linked with a comma and a conjunction, or with a semicolon.
5. The compound/complex sentence: This adds one or more subordinate clauses to a compound sentence, as in this revision of #4: “Madonna was once the holy name of a blessed virgin, but then came along a young Italian girl singer from suburban Detroit, who turned gay disco clubs into little houses of worship.”
Stated even more simply:
The intentional fragment can be a word, a phrase, a clause, but does not express the full thought of a complete sentence.
A simple sentence is made up of one main clause, and no other clauses.
A complex sentence is made up of one main clause and at least one subordinate clause. (A subordinate or dependent clause has a subject and a verb, but cannot stand alone.)
A compound sentence has two or more independent clauses.
A compound/complex sentence has at least two independent clauses, and at least one dependent clause.
Let’s break down the paragraph that leads this essay:
- “Letters represent sounds.” — Simple sentence, one independent clause.
- “Words are built from letters.” — Simple sentence.
- “A group of words makes a phrase.” Simple sentence.
- “Add a subject and verb, and you have a clause.” Compound sentence, two independent clauses.
- “If that clause expresses a complete thought, we call it a sentence.” The first clause depends on the second, giving us a complex sentence.
- “But if that clause expresses an incomplete thought, it is called subordinate, and we have to attach it to a main clause or it will not be considered Standard English.” Compound/complex sentence.
- “One complete sentence, or even a fragment, can serve as a paragraph.” Simple sentence.
- “More often, though, several sentences join together in a paragraph to develop a thesis or idea.” Simple sentence.
- “And several paragraphs, sometimes many, are required to write an essay, report or chapter for a book.” Simple sentence.
- “What an amazing process!” Intentional fragment (no verb).
To review:
Simple. Simple. Simple. Compound. Complex. Compound/complex. Simple. Simple. Simple. Fragment.
Writers and teachers often advise that variation of sentence length and structure helps create the various effects we call style, voice, rhythm and flow. The more straightforward and informational the writing, the more simple sentences you are likely to find. The more stylish or scholarly the writing, the greater the variety you are likely to discover.
Consider this paragraph from “Goldengrove,” a novel by Francine Prose:
Complex. Complex. Compound. Compound/complex. Compound. No simple sentence or intentional fragments in this passage.
In upcoming essays, I’ll take a look at each of these sentence structures to explore their diversity and describe their utility. Next: “Not so simple.”
