What kind of composition do we have as sentence in English? Part 2

In English syntax, we come across many kinds of sentences as in any other language. According to the Oxford A.L. Dictionary, syntax is the way, words and phrases are put together to form sentences in a language. Last time, we dealt with the grammatical part of sentence type, now let’s discover it’s syntactic level…

1- Simple sentences.

These sentences have only one subject and one action or idea. They do not depend on any other sentence and consequently cannot be broken into any other clause. They are what we call in French « Proposition indépendante ».

e.g: I am a student.

My father has bought a new car.

2-Compound sentences.

These are whole sentences in which two simple sentences are joined together by a coordinating conjunction or just by a comma (,). It can be either one subject doing several actions or two and more different subjects. We can find conjunctions like: and, but, because… We refer to these in French as « Proposition principale et subordonée conjonctive ».

eg: S1: The teacher entered, sat on the chair, and start talking to the students.

S2: I have come, seen, and won.

S3: Mum bought me a new school bag because the old one is torn.

Ps: In your comments, try to dispatch and find out the simple sentences contained in compound sentence S1.

3-Complex sentences

Complex sentences have also two parts like the compound ones. But unlike the latter whose both parts can stand independently, in the complex sentence, one part is dependent, meaning that it cannot stand on its own. The dependent part is joined to the principal by subordinating conjunctions. They are: who, which, whose, that…

These are what we call in French « Proposition principale et subordonée relative ». 

e.g:  S4 : This is the boy whose father died in the accident.

S5: Kodjo said that he will come back next month.

Did you know about imperative and interrogative sentences ? Read this

Hope this lecture helps you?!!! Like, comment and share????. See you at the next course…