Superlative: Don’t Resort to Them As an Excuse. Synonym: A Clever Way to Repeat Yourself and Write Persuasively. Sentence: Don't Make Readers Work So Hard. 2 of 3) Fragment, Break Up, Fragmentise, Fragmentize :, : (verb) break or cause to break into pieces. Show me how to use writing devices, like a sentence fragment, with wisdom. 1 of 3) Fragment : : (noun) a piece broken off or cut off of something else. I want to help my readers understand the truths you give me. Which is why writers occasionally use a sentence fragment. They use sentence fragments for emphasis.Ī writer’s goal is similar to Solomon’s purpose in writing the Proverbs: “to help people understand insights.”Ĭlarity and emphasis are keys to bringing about understanding. No matter how many subject-predicate pairs come in a sentence, the ratio is always 1:1every subject needs a predicate, and every predicate needs a subject. In this way, dependent clauses change the meaning of independent clauses.Good writers don’t eliminate sentence fragments completely from their content. Some sentences have more than one subject-predicate combination, but the subject position always comes first.
With a subordinating conjunction, a clause becomes a description of another clause. There are also quite a few less common subordinating conjunctions, so we recommend studying the list included in our subordinating conjunction post until you can recognize them on your own. You’re probably already familiar with some common subordinating conjunctions, such as because, since, if, until, when, even though, in case, while, now that, and certain uses of the prepositions before and after. In a way, these subordinating conjunctions turn independent clauses into dependent ones. The short answer is that dependent clauses always start with subordinating conjunctions. However, both kinds of clause contain a subject and a verb, so why is one a complete sentence but not the other? Basically, independent clauses are complete sentences on their own, but dependent clauses are not. The key to using complex sentences is understanding the difference between independent and dependent clauses. dependent clauses: What’s the difference? “If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” -Maya Angelou Independent vs. In conditional sentences, one clause is true only if both clauses are true. One of the most common types of complex sentence is conditional sentences, which discuss imaginary situations, often using an if-then structure. When I grow up, I’ll use complete sentences.
Without an independent clause, a dependent clause is just a sentence fragment. Their distinction is that they contain a dependent clause only complex sentences and complex-compound sentences have these.Ī dependent clause, also known as a subordinate clause, is a clause that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence. Complex sentences are easy to spot as they often use subordinating conjunctions like because, since, or until to connect clauses.Ĭomplex sentences are one of the four types of sentences based on structure (simple, complex, compound, and compound-complex).
It works best when you need to provide more information to explain or modify your sentence’s main point. A complex sentence is a sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. Grammarly helps give your sentences extra polish Write with Grammarly What is a complex sentence?