Teacher Discussion Forums

Right, having cleared that up for Fluff, here's my problem.

My houseguests returned from a long day of shopping and went straight to bed.

No, not literally. This is the example W.R. Smalzer uses to introduce the term "simple sentence". It's not the one I would choose, since it has a tricky "double headed predicate". If "they" were inserted after "and" he would call it a "compound" sentence. Since a clause can sometimes have an implied subject and not an overt one, is this sensible?

He goes on to have students complete "compound" examples such as:

............................., so I told a white lie.

................., for the thoughts in your mind determine the kind of person you are.

Wouldn't they be complex sentences?

Damn, I wish I had the energy and knowledge to answer these kinds of questions. Maybe after I read my Swann and Murphy, I'll be able to

The textbook answer is that simple sentences can have compound subjects and compound verbs, i.e.
My sister and I partied and shopped last weekend.
Here, the "and" connects only words, not complete clauses with subject and verb.


A compound sentence is connected by a "coordinate conjunction", the well-known "FANBOYS"--for/and/nor/but/or/yet/so. The conjunctions are preceded by a comma, which can be omitted if the 2 clauses are short (or the writer doesn't feel like putting the comma in!)
My sister and I were tired, and we went to bed early.
If one of the FANBOYS connects two independent clauses, you have a compound sentence.

A complex sentence has a subordinate clause:
When I am tired, I go to bed early.
The first (subordinate) clause doesn't make sense on its own, although it has a subject and a verb.

I don't teach sentence types; I teach what punctuation to use when.

Well quite, you seem to need this highly questionable FANBOYS stuff in order to make sense of it.

As to the complex sentences, someone asked me what "for" meant in a "non-complex" sentence like "I love him, for he has a beautiful soul". And what can you answer apart from that it means "because" - the prototypical complex sentence marker.

highly questionable FANBOYS stuff

Yes, it's not entirely consistent. "For" and "so" are logical connectors that are similar to the conjunctive adverbs, "consequently, therefore, then, thus". When these connectors are used, a semicolon is supposed to separate the independent clauses.

I think someone would make a distinction between "because" by saying that "for" would never be used to answer a "why" question, but then you could say the same thing about "since". It's all somewhat subjective.