
Types of Sentences as Per Structure

Simple Sentences
A simple sentence is also called an independent clause. It contains a subject and a verb, and expresses a complete thought.
- Few students like to study at night.
- India plays an important role in promoting peace.
- India is an emerging power.
The above given sentences express complete thought. They are simple sentences.

Compound Sentences
A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinator. The coordinators are: and, for, so, or, nor, but, etc.
- I try to speak English and my friend Steve speaks French.
- James was busy in his work so Serena did not disturb him.
- He is interested to take part in the game but his parents forbade him.
In the above given sentences, each sentence contains two independent clauses which are joined by a coordinator.

Complex Sentences
A complex sentence has an independent clause joined by one or more dependent dauses. A complex sentence always has a subordinator such as because, since, after, although, or a relative pronoun such as that, who, or which.
- When he handed in his homework, he forgot to give the teacher the last page.
- The teacher returned the homework after noticing the error.
- The students are studying because they have a test tomorrow.
- After finishing work, Steve and Smith went to the movie.

Identify the kind of sentence in the following questions:

There are three kinds of sentences.
(A) Simple
(B) Compound
(C) Complex
(D) All of these
(E) None of these
Answer: (a)

Steve and Smith went to the movie after finishing their work.
(A) Simple
(B) Compound
(C) Complex
(D) All of these
(E) None of these
Answer: (c)
- A group of words which makes complete sense is called a Sentence.
- The words in a sentence are placed in their proper order to make complete sense.
- Five types of sentences are Assertive, Interrogative, Imperative, Exclamatory and Optative.
- There are three types of sentences based on structure. They are Simple, Compound and Complex.
- A question begins with either a helping verb (is, am, are, was, were, has, have, had, do, does, did, can, will, shall, may, etc.) or a question word (what, more...