Today we are going to discuss about the examples of complex sentences and later see the rules which will help us to form a correct complex sentence.
What are Complex Sentences?
A sentence that contains only one Main or Principal clause and one or more than one subordinate clause is called a Complex Sentence. It means that a complex sentence has more than one finite verb (i.e a verb with a subject).
The Main or Principal Clause shares the main information and the subordinate clause(s) are used to provide extra details.
Sub-ordinate clauses in complex sentences are joined by subordinating conjunctions like that, what, which etc..
Example – I know that she is a poor girl.
‘I know’ is a principal clause and ‘that she is a poor girl’ is a subordinate clause. ‘that’ here is a subordinating conjunction that joins two sentences ‘I know’ and ‘she is a poor girl’.
A subordinate clause in complex sentence can be one of the three types of Clauses namely Noun clause, Adjective clause and Adverb Clause.
Examples of Complex Sentences
Let’s see some examples that will help you build a solid understanding of complex sentences. Here the principal clauses are in bold and subordinate clauses are italicized.
- I know that girl who was at the party.
- When you do this work, I shall help you with money.
- When the she went to the party, she ate chicken.
- If the he goes to the party, he will eat pork.
- Let’s go back to the stadium where we played football.
- Because my food was cold, I heated it again.
- I went to the store before midnight.
- I will help with your work if you teach me how to play badminton.
- I want to check out the book that Joe read last week.
- Joe and Mary live in the house where the small tree with a swing is in the back yard.
- After I cook dinner, we will play tennis.
- We were late to the party because Marie could not find her shoes.
Each sentence has one Main or Principal clause and one subordinate clause or more. Hence All of these sentences are Complex sentences.
Rules of Forming Correct Complex Sentences
- Notice one important thing that Independent clauses are like simple sentences in themselves they have a subject and a verb.
- A complex sentence can either start with the independent clause or the subordinate clause.
- If the subordinate clause comes first, you must add a comma. This is not needed if the independent clause comes first.
- A subordinate clause cannot stand alone, it needs to be linked to the independent clause to make sense. And they are linked using subordinate conjunctions like if, that, which etc.
Now, You know the rules and how to form them. So your next task is to practice these sentences in both writing and speaking to understand their use. Till the time you master them you can use this post as your reference.
How about sharing this ?, Let others also how to form complex sentences.