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 Foreign Language
Success Strategies
 First Edition, Volume I: August 2006  

Part II- English Language Grammar Primer & Exercises

COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCES
A clause is a series of related words that have both a subject and a verb. Combining clauses is slightly more complicated than combining phrases and there are three ways to do it.

Compound sentences are two independent clauses attached to each other by a coordinating conjunction. The acronym for coordinating conjunctions is FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. If you see one of these words, the sentence is compound. An independent clause can stand alone in a sentence without any additions. The clause: “Tina bought a rug,” is an example of both a simple sentence and an independent clause. Two independent clauses together create a compound sentence. We can call these “equalizing” conjunctions.

Examples:

and:

but:

yet:

either/or:

neither/nor:

  

I like coffee and you like tea.

I like coffee but you like tea.

I like coffee yet you like tea.

Either I like coffee or you like tea.

Neither do I like coffee nor do you like tea.

COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

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