In this section we will discuss the differences between a compound sentence and a complex sentence. Most of the time people easily get confused with these sentences so here’s a nice tabular explanation.
Complex Sentence |
Compound Sentence |
| A Complex Sentence is a one which has one Independent clause and one or more dependent clause. | A Compound Sentence is one which has two or more independent clauses joined via coordinating conjunctions. |
| Complex Sentences use subordinate conjunctions to join Independent clause with dependent clause. | A Compound Sentence uses coordinating conjunctions to join Independent clauses. |
| There are dependent clauses in Complex Sentences | You’ll find that There are no dependent clauses in Compound Sentences |
| There are many subordinate conjunctions like after, while, because, since etc. which can be used to dependent clause with Independent clause. |
In total There are seven coordinating conjunctions namely, and, for, so, but, nor, or and yet ; that are used to join Independent clauses. The list of these coordinating conjunctions is often represented using acronym FANBOYS. |
| Example : My Dad laughed when I told a joke.
In this example ‘My Dad laughed’ is an Independent clause and ‘I told a joke’ is a dependent clause joined by subordinating conjunction ‘when’. |
Example : He sang and she danced.
In this example ‘He sang’ and ‘she danced’ are two Independent clauses and ‘and’ is a coordinating conjunction joining them. |
| Order of clauses matters a lot |
Order of clauses doesn’t matter |
You can also use this table as a point of reference whenever you have to identify the type of a sentence.
Important point here is the knowledge of clauses. After understanding the concept of clauses and conjunctions, we can easily differentiate between these two types of sentences, “complex” and “compound”.