Simplifying English: 4 Basic Sentence Structures

The creation of sentences is vital in the international English proficiency exams such as the IELTS and the TOEFL, particularly in the Writing and Speaking component of the exams. It is thus important to familiarize yourself with the basic sentence structures in English. From there, you can prove your grammatical range and accuracy by playing around with the structures and incorporating them to how you express. The trick here is not to stick with just one pattern but to utilize all structures.

1.       Simple Sentence. A simple sentence is made up of an independent clause. This means that the sentence contains a subject, a predicate, and it makes sense.

Example:

Alicia sleeps.

The bed is warm and soft.

The man in the white room kept hearing voices of those who were no longer there.

2.       Compound sentence. A compound sentence contains two independent clauses that are usually put together by conjunctions.

Example:

The rest of the world sleeps but Jessica is awake.

Ana told her story and the group listened to her silently.

Joey is going to Malaysia this week so his friends bought him a present.

3.       Complex sentence. A complex sentence contains both an independent clause and at least one dependent clause. A dependent clause is a group of words that has a subject and a predicate but does not make sense.

Two other sentence structures can come under this one: the IC + DC pattern and the DC,IC pattern.

Example:

When the man ran into the café, the people already knew that the dam had burst. (DC,IC)

The people already knew that the dam had burst when the man ran into the café. (IC+DC)

The little girl still slept with her mother’s old doll even though Jenna told her that it was full off bugs. (IC+DC)

Even though Jenna told her that it was full of bugs, the little girl still slept with her mother’s old doll.

4.       Compound-complex sentence. This structure contains two or more independent clause and at least a dependent clause.

Example:

When the man burst into the bar, the surprised waitress dropped the steaming pot of coffee and the resounding crash startled the customers.

Despite their father’s disapproval, Kent flew to the United States to take his Masters degree in business and Lisa married her high school sweetheart.

Knowing these sentence structures correctly and applying them to your IELTS or TOEFL speaking and writing are enough to show that you are versatile in the use of the language. It earns you more points. Remember: the trick is to mix these four up.

Good luck!