SENTENCE  
STRUCTURES

SMARTSPARKS.NET

· All Sentences have a subject and predicate
· All sentences express a complete thought!

SUBJECT (NOUN usually)
The “who” or “what” of the sentence 
(the person, place, or thing that the sentence is about)

Key to abbreviated sentence structures notes:
N = noun (person, place, or thing)
V = verb (word that shows action or existence: is, are, was)
DO = direct object (noun that receives the action of a transitive verb)
& = a conjunction (but, or, yet, so, for, and, nor) 

SIMPLE  SENTENCE  STRUCTURES 
(One complete thought)

N / V : Noun / Verb (intransitive, in-tran-si-tive)  
Example: Dogs / beg.

N /V/DO: N oun / Verb (transitive, tran-si-tive) / direct object (also a noun)
Example: Dogs / bite / people.

N & N/V  
Example: Sue and Bob / studied.

  N / V & V
Example: Sue / read and studied.

  N & N / V & V
Example: Sue and Bob / read and studied.
NOTE: Although this sentence has two subjects and two verbs, it is a simple sentence because Sue and Bob are studying and reading TOGETHER!

COMPOUND  SENTENCE  STRUCTURES 
(Two complete thoughts joined by a conjunction)
N / V, & N / V
Example: Sue read, and Bob studied.

There can be more than one noun or verb within each complete thought of a compound sentence, but commas must be used properly so that each of the two complete thoughts can be easily distinguished.
N & N/ V&V, & N & N/ V&V
Sue and Bob read and studied, but Cathy and Jim cut school and played.

COMPLEX  SENTENCE  STRUCTURES

These are sentences that contain one main clause (a.k.a. independent clause) and at least one subordinate clause (a.k.a. dependant clause). 

For further information see the University of Calgary web page below, which has excellent interactive exercises that will test your understanding of complex sentences.

http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/grammar/