Recipe

Classify a sentence's type

Use when: you need to name a sentence as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex, whether for parsing, punctuating, or matching it to a rule that depends on its type

Goal: the correct one of the four sentence-type labels, plus (for compound and complex) which of the five numbered structures is doing the joining

Taught in The Five Sentence-Joining Structures, Side by Side

1. 1

   Scan the whole sentence for a subordinator (because, although, when, if, unless, while...) or a relative pronoun. Each one marks the start of one dependent clause. Set those clauses aside for a moment.

   Example

   Because the train was delayed, the concert started late, and the crowd grew restless. One subordinator: because. One dependent clause: because the train was delayed. Set it aside.

   • you find zero subordinators anywhere — there's no dependent clause; skip to Step 3 to count independent clauses.
   • you find one or more — note each dependent clause you found, then continue to Step 2.

   Why: finding the dependent clauses first, before untangling how the rest connects, is the reliable way to take a long sentence apart -- trying to see the whole structure at once is what causes misclassification.

2. 2

   Look at what you marked off in Step 1.

   • one dependent clause — continue to Step 3; the sentence will turn out complex or compound-complex.
   • more than one dependent clause — continue to Step 3 anyway; several dependent clauses don't change the question that matters next, which is how many INDEPENDENT clauses remain.

   Why: the sentence-type names track independent-clause count and dependent-clause presence, not how many dependent clauses specifically -- one or several, the next question is the same.

3. 3

   With the dependent clause(s) set aside, count how many independent clauses are left. If there's more than one, check how they're connected: comma+FANBOYS, a bare semicolon, or a semicolon plus a conjunctive adverb (Structures #1-#3).

   Example

   Back to Because the train was delayed, the concert started late, and the crowd grew restless: one dependent clause, from Step 1. What's left, the concert started late, and the crowd grew restless, is two independent clauses joined by comma+and (Structure #1). One dependent clause plus two independent clauses makes it compound-complex.

   • one independent clause, and Step 1 found no dependent clause — simple.
   • two or more independent clauses, and Step 1 found no dependent clause — compound; name which of Structures #1-#3 joins them.
   • one independent clause, and Step 1 found one dependent clause — complex; name whether the dependent clause leads (Structure #5, comma) or trails (Structure #4, no comma).
   • two or more independent clauses AND at least one dependent clause — compound-complex; name both the compound structure joining the independents and where the dependent clause attaches.

   Why: a compound subject or a compound predicate can make a single clause look busy without ever adding a second clause. Counting independent clauses, not nouns or verbs, is what keeps a simple sentence from being mistaken for a compound one.