Simple Sentence Compound Sentence Complex Sentence

subject and the predicate” Therefore, it can be concluded that a sentence means a group of words which contain a subject and a verb and functions to express a complete thought. In addition, a sentence, at least, consists of one independent clause. In addition, structurally there are four types of sentences. Those are simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence, and compound complex sentence.

a. Simple Sentence

“A simple sentence is a sentence with one independent clause and no subordinate clauses” Warriner, 1982: 65. The example of the simple sentences can be seen in example 54. 54 My father bought me a new bike. Hereby, the minimum requirement of a simple sentence is reflected through the relationship between the subject My father and the verb bought. Meanwhile, the elements such as the indirect object me and the direct object a new bike are complementary to the subject-verb relationship to make the sentence have a complete thought.

b. Compound Sentence

A sentence is said to be compound if it consists of two or more independent clauses and has no subordinate clauses Warriner, 1982: 65. Besides, those clauses are parallelized through the means of coordinating conjunctions such as and, but, nor, yet, or which show the equality of each clause. The equality between clauses, hereby, becomes the determining factor of a sentence to be called compound. The example of a compound sentence can be seen in sentence 55. 55 John is studying and Lisa is cooking. There are two clauses in the example 55. The first clause is John is studying . Meanwhile, the second one is Lisa is cooking. Since the first clause consists of a subject John and a verb phrase is studying and the second clause consists of a subject Lisa and a verb phrase is cooking, it can be concluded that each clause consists of a subject and a verb phrase. Therefore, sentence 55 is said to be parallel and equal because the subject-verb relationship in the first and second clause are equal through the existent of subject-verb relationships which are parallelized by the conjunction and.

c. Complex Sentence

A complex sentence is made up of an independent clause, which is called main clause, and at least one dependent clause, which is called subordinate clause Warriner, 1982: 65. The example of complex sentence can bee seen in sentence 56. 56 I like Anna since she is clever. Example 56 shows that the clause I like Anna is the independent clause or the main clause because such clause can stand alone by itself as a complete sentence consisting a subject and verb. On the other hand, the clause since she is clever becomes the dependent clause or the subordinate clause as it cannot stand alone due to the existence of the conjunction since. The subordinate clauses are usually introduced by the subordinating conjunction such as because, when, while, although, as, so that, so, if, after, before , until, since. In addition, subordinate clause can take the form of noun clause, as seen in example 57, and relative clause as seen in example 58. The subordinate clauses are written in italics. 57 My mother knew that I won the game. 58 I sold one of my guitars which I like most.

d. Compound Complex Sentence