Sentence Types

There are four different sentence types that we need to look at. These are simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences and compound-complex sentences.

Simple Sentences

Simple sentences are the easiest sentence type to recognise. They contain just one clause. A few examples are provided below:

• Anna listened to the radio.
• Dmitry went to the shop.
• Lukas was running.

Be careful not to include too many simple sentences in a paragraph. Although they are useful in keeping things simple and to the point, too many of them will affect the reader’s focus; especially the examiners in the exam. Below is an example of someone using too many simple sentences:

• Lukas went running in the park. He ran for two hours. It was a sunny day. It didn’t rain.

Let’s reword these simple sentences to make them sound more fluent:

• Lukas went running in the park for two hours. It was a sunny day and it didn’t rain.

The number of simple sentences in our first example distracts from the information we are trying to convey, whereas we can tell that our second example flows more easily just by altering the number of simple sentences it contains.

Compound Sentences

Compound sentences are sentences that contain two or more separate pieces of information that are connected by a coordinating conjunction. These pieces of information are main clauses that can make sense on their own. For example:

• I got a taxi this morning and I was early for work.
• Christopher prepared the decorations for the party so Lisa had time to cook the cake.
• Susie played with her doll and James kicked the football.

On the last example, you may have noticed that we have joined two separate sentences that we used earlier to make a much longer one: ‘Susie played with her doll and James kicked the football.’ This sentence now consists of two individual main clauses as we have connected them using the conjunction ‘and’ (conjunctions are further explained when we discuss the eight word classes later in this unit). Joining these sentences implies to the reader that Susie and James know each other. This is fine if it is what you are attempting to convey to the reader but is not if Susie and James do not know each other. Therefore, be careful when combining sentences to make sure that the meaning you are creating is correct and does not become obscured.

Using too many compound sentences can also have an effect on the fluency of your writing, so be sure to use a variety of other sentence types too as otherwise your writing may sound something similar to this:

• Susie played with her doll and James kicked the football outside but she was offended that James wouldn’t play with her so she didn’t speak to him for the rest of the day and continued to play by herself.

The above sentence would sound much better by being broken up into a couple of separate sentences with some punctuation added:

• James kicked the football outside and Susie played with her doll. She was offended that James wouldn’t play with her so she didn’t speak to him for the rest of the day and continued to play by herself.

Complex Sentences

Complex sentences involve more than one clause but, unlike compound sentences, they contain subordinate clauses. Complex sentences are also not restricted in having to contain a conjunction, but when they do it is normally a subordinating conjunction. See below for some examples of complex sentences:

• Arthur went swimming last week because he wanted to start doing more exercise.
• Though he was very rich, he was still very unhappy.
• She returned the computer after she noticed it was damaged.

Sentences are not limited to how many clauses they can have, although, generally, we try not to over-complicate them too much. Long sentences can obscure the point we are trying to make and make it difficult for the reader to understand. With that in mind though, do not break all your sentences down to be as minute as possible; as we have already seen, your writing will become less interesting as a result. A good paragraph consists of a variety of sentence lengths that keeps the writing fluent and the reader engaged. Below is an example of a sentence with more than two clauses:

Here, we are being told more about why Jack got called in for dinner. In this sentence, we have learnt what time the person speaking and Jack normally sit down for dinner and that Jack was late. The ‘still’ also implies that Jack is

normally late for his dinner at 6.30 and so it tells the reader about his character – perhaps he is unreliable? The first subordinate clause does not obscure the meaning and sounds more interesting than if it was merely written ‘I called Jack in for dinner but he was still late.’

However, be careful to only connect relevant clauses that would make sense as a complete sentence, otherwise the sentence could become confusing and lose the focus of the reader.

Compound-Complex Sentences

Like the name suggests, a compound-complex sentence consists of compound and complex sentences together. For instance, in a compound-complex sentence, there will be at least two independent (main) clauses plus at least one subordinate clause. Look at the following example:

We are able to extract meaning from the two main clauses in this sentence; they could almost be separated into sentences of their own. However, the ‘I haven’t had the time to go lately’ is dependent on the others for it to convey any meaning.

 In your exam be sure to use a variety of sentences in your written work as the examiner will be paying close attention to this and will be marking you on your writing skills and style. Different sentence types create different effects; for example, they can speed up and reduce the pace of the writing. Therefore, in a more fast-pace text (such as a narrative with a lot of action) you will be better using a faster pace.

Declarative, Imperative, Interrogative and Exclamative Sentences

Sentences are not just distinguished by their length. A sentence can also be either declarative, imperative, interrogative or exclamative.

Sentences are declarative if they either provide information, ideas or explain something. Reports and formal essays are mainly composed of declarative sentences only. Examples of declarative sentences are:

• Easter Sunday is on April the 16th this year.
• I am meeting Jane at 7.00pm outside the theatre.
• Declarative sentences make a statement.

Sentences are imperative if they either issue a command, request or if they express a wish or desire. Examples of imperative sentences are:

• Sit still.
• You need to be quiet when we walk in.
• What do you think about shellfish?

Sentences are exclamative if they express a strong emotion. Most of the time, exclamatory sentences end in an exclamation mark and so are still fairly easy to recognise. Some examples of exclamative sentences are:

• I’ve just won some money on a scratch card!
• Oh, I didn’t see you there!
• I can’t believe it!