1. Clauses

2. Definition A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and its predicate. A sentence might be one clause or it may have several clauses.

3. Clauses can be independent, making sense by themselves, or they can be dependent and need to be connected to an independent clause in order to make sense. Some dependent clauses act like big adverbs; others act like adjectives or nouns. Independent: Damon went to the store. Dependent: When Damon went to the store …

4. The four sentence structures Based on clauses, there are four sentence structures: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. Let I stand for independent, D stand for dependent, cc stand for coordinating conjunction, and ca stand for conjunctive adverb.

5. Simple A one-clause sentence. The rogue elephant crashed through the fence.

6. Compound A sentence with two or more independent clauses. I, cc I: The rogue elephant crashed through the fence, and we ran to the compound for safety. I; I: No one knew anything; we crept away silently. I; ca, I: No one knew anything; therefore, we crept away silently.

7. Complex A sentence with an independent clause joined to a dependent clause. The dependent clause often begins with a subordinating conjunction (if, as, since, when, and many others): I D: A complex sentence with the independent clause first. We do not put a comma between clauses in this case. The older brother turned back because Joseph laughed. D, I: A complex sentence with the dependent clause first. There must be a comma after the introductory dependent clause. Because Joseph laughed, the older brother turned back.

8. Compound-Complex At first the warnings were minor, and we had begun to relax when suddenly we heard rumblings from the gorge. Combines compound and complex structures while maintaining the initial code structures and punctuation rules.