Coordinated and Subordinated Sentences

Writing composed entirely of isolated independent clauses sounds childish and “choppy.” Instead, combine small clauses together, to form more flowing, complex sentences, Coordinated and Subordinated sentences.

Coordinated Sentence FANBOYS Ind , FANBOYS ind. This is two small sentences (independent clauses) joined together with a coordinating conjunction. You can easily remember what coordinating conjunctions are with the word FANBOYS for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so Ind , FANBOYS ind. I have a dog, and his name is Caesar. I love Lucy, and she loves me.

Subordinated Sentence This is a combination of a dependent (or subordinate) clause and an independent clause. You can easily recognize a dependent (or subordinate) clause because it always starts with a subordinating conjunction. SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS Although, as soon as, because, even though, unless, until, while, if, since, when, whenever. Dep, indep. OR Indep dep. (Note that when the dependent clause comes first, it is followed by a comma) Since it is on sale, you should buy that shirt. Skunks do not spray unless they are scared.

Note that you can almost always reverse the order of the two parts of a subordinated sentence. You might do this if you prefer one version over the other. However, note that you will need to change the punctuation. Because Tuan likes to stay up late, he watches a lot of movies. Tuan watches a lot of movies because he likes to stay up late.