Complex sentences The dog barked because it was lonely. Mother sang a lullaby when the baby woke up. Although they were well looked after the birds flew away. A complex sentence has one main clause (which can stand on its own and make complete sense) and one or more subordinate clauses (which do not make sense on their own).

Subordination is usually marked by a signal in the subordinate clause. This signal is generally a subordinating conjunction When you put one at the front of a clause you automatically make it into a subordinate clause. The dependent clause is subordinate to the independent clause.

Conjunctions like when, if, because, whenever are subordinating conjunctions. Subordinate clauses starting with conjunctions are adverbials. This means that they are mobile. The baby woke up when the dog barked. When the dog barked, the baby woke up.

If you look carefully at the example sentences, you'll notice an important punctuation rule that applies to subordination: When a sentence opens with a subordinate clause, you need a comma before the main clause to signal to your reader that you have reached a grammatical boundary. Whenever the dog barked, the baby woke up.

You don’t necessarily need a comma if the subordinate clause comes after the main clause, because the conjunction signals the grammatical boundary. The baby woke up whenever the dog barked. You place a comma after but not before a dependent clause.

After the final touchdown, the fans stormed out onto the field. The fans jumped onto the field after the final touchdown. Therefore, whether or not you use a comma depends on the order of clauses in the sentence.

Note that complex sentences are formed by linking simple sentences together, but the elements in a complex sentence are not of equal importance. There is always one independent (or MAIN) CLAUSE and one or more DEPENDENT (or SUBORDINATE) CLAUSES. If removed from a sentence, a main clause can stand on its own, but the dependent clauses cannot..

We form complex sentences in two ways: 1) By joining subordinate clauses to the main clause with SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS The alarm was raised as soon as the fire was discovered. 2) By using INFINITIVE OR PARTICIPLE CONSTRUCTIONS

These are NON-FINITE PHRASES rather than clauses, but they form part of complex sentences, because they can be re-expressed as clauses which are subordinate to the main clause: To get to university you have to pass a number of examinations. (If you want to get to university…) Seeing the door open, the stranger entered the house. (When he saw the door open……)

Ifas Whenas if Afteras though Whileeven though Untilso that Sincethat Beforewhere Unlesswhereas Because Whether Although Subordinating conjunctions such as the following are used in subordination:

I went to the grocery store after the rain stopped. James told me that he would feed my dog.

Because he didn't like them, the little boy threw the peanuts away. While the cat's away, the mice will play.

On the basis of their potential function, we distinguish several major functional categories of subordinate clauses - nominal, adverbial, relative, and comparative. We can present these various distinctions graphically as follows:

 They appear as an NP  They can be the subject of the sentence [That you like bananas] is surprising.  They can be an object I know [that you like bananas.]  They can be replaced by a pronoun (It is surprising; I know it.)  That is a complementizer.  Nominal Clauses The subordinate clauses in the complex sentences may be

 Adverbial Subordinate Clauses –Indicate time, place, manner, cause, or condition –They are usually preceded by a subordinator. He felt better after he had a short nap. Although he was over eighty, he could walk Although he was over eighty, he could walk faster than I could. faster than I could.  Adjectival Relative Clauses  Adjectival Relative Clauses are embedded within the sentence. - They start with a pronoun who, whom, which, that. - They may be restrictive or non-restrictive. - They may be restrictive or non-restrictive.

 Comparative subordinate clauses -A proposition expressed in the main clause is compared with a proposition expressed in the subordinate clause.