Sentence Structures

A sentence is any group of words that appear together and make up a complete thought. There are different types of sentences which are found in English language like possessive sentence, infinite sentence and interrogative sentence etc. which all convey one thing or another to the reader. You can read in detail about the types of sentences in my other article with the name Type of Sentences.

Today, we will discuss another feature of the sentences and that is their structure. The structure of a sentence can also differ from one sentence to the other just like its types and its important for the reader to not only know about the type of sentence that he/she is reading but also about the structure used for the formation of that sentence.

Structures of Sentences

The structure of the sentence is how it is formed and in what category it lies structure wise. There are four main types of sentence structures which I will discuss in detail below.

Simple Sentence

As discussed in my other article about ‘Sentence’, a simple sentence in English language is a sentence that consists of a single independent clause.

An independent clause is a group of words that contain a subject and a predicate (verb + anything other than the subject).

Example:

She is a great dancer.

The above example is that of a simple sentence as there is only one independent clause that is present in this sentence. She is the subject of this independent clause and is a great dancer is the predicate.

Complex Sentence

The next type of sentence structure is a complex sentence. A sentence is said to be a complex sentence if it contains single independent clause and at least one dependent clause along with it. It may contain more than one dependent clauses.

A dependent clause is a group of words written together that does not contain a subject and may not give a complete thought to the reader.

Example:

When you think about it, she really is a mean person.

The above example is of a complex sentence which contain a dependent clause she really is a mean person (subject = she) and a dependent clause when you think about it (lacks subject).

Compound Sentence

The third type of sentence structure is compound sentence and it represent sentences which contain more than one independent clauses.

Example:

I was a successful pianist, but my wife never liked my profession.

The above sentence is an example of a compound sentence as it contains two independent clauses i.e. I was a successful pianist (subject = I) and but my wife never like my profession (subject = my wife).

Compound-Complex Sentence

The fourth and last type of sentence structure is the compound complex sentences which contain at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

Example:

Sara is a great listener but don’t ever talk as she has trust issues.

The above sentence is a compound complex sentence as it contains two independent clauses Sara is a great listener (subject = Sara) and she has trust issues (subject = she). It also contains a dependent clause but don’t ever talk as (subject missing).