How many kinds are there of sentences on the basis of structure?

 Five Kinds of Sentences on the Basis of Structure

• Simple Sentences
• Compound Sentences
• Complex Sentences
• Compound Complex Sentences
• Complex Compound Sentences

Writing is an important discipline. As students you have to write. When you are writing you want to be effective. So you should know what goes into making a writing interesting and effective.

There are many things which make your writing effective. If you are familiar with different structures of sentences, you surely become more effective because you will need different structures to convey different meanings. Here is where good understanding of kinds of sentences come to be handy. 

As a student of language, you have study different literary texts. These literary texts have different sentence structures. If you start paying attention at the time when you do literary texts in your classroom, you start getting a sure leverage. With the passage of time, you start categorising sentences into above five kinds. When you do so again and again, a time comes when you start internalising structures. And this is one big step towards getting and demonstrating skill of using different structures in your own composition, which again is essential to get good grades in your examinations.

Here I will define these five kinds of sentences with examples. Afterwards I will give you four worksheets which will be helpful for strengthening concepts further.

Simple Sentence

A sentences consisting of just one subject and one predicate is called a simple sentence.

Examples:  

• The sky was clear.
• Bees were humming in the garden.
• His hopeful eyes inspired his followers.

Compound Sentence

A sentence consisting of two or more than two independent clauses is a compound sentence. A clause comprises of a subject and and predicate. Independent clauses are those clauses which stand as independent sentences.

Examples:

• She is skilful, but she is dishonest.
• They could not reach on time, for the roads were unsafe and dangerous.
• Times will change, and our children will live happier lives.

Complex Sentence

A sentence consisting of a principal clause and at least one or more dependent clauses. A principal clause can stand as an independent sentence whereas a dependent clause cannot stand as independent sentence.

Examples:

• The boy who stands first in the class will be given a prize.
• After the king was killed in a war, his son was made the king.
• Since you have told a lie, you will be punished.

Compound Complex Sentence

If two or more independent clauses are followed by one or more dependent clauses, the resulting sentence is named a compound complex sentence.

Examples:

• The search party went everywhere in the jungle, but they did not find any clue of the boy who went missing early in the morning.
• Our friends can understand our position and they will help us though we have not informed them.

Complex Compound Sentence

A complex sentence followed by one or more independent clauses is called a complex compound sentence.

Examples:

• After he was married to a rich woman, he went ahead and he built a big business empire with her financial support.
• The boy who was to be sacrificed was brought to the altar and he was the very picture of innocence.

Now once you have gone through all the concepts, here are worksheets for you to strengthen these concepts further.