The Complex Sentence

I explicitly teach the complex sentence pattern because most sentence fragment errors in learners’ work are the result of putting a period where the comma should be in a complex sentence. The pattern is:

 “[subordinate conjunction] ______________ , _______________ .”

(“If dada dada comma BOOM period.”

“When dada dada comma BOOM period.)

I repeat that pattern over and over, using a sing-song voice for the subordinate clause and a strong “boom” for the main clause and inserting various subordinate conjunctions as examples:

“If it’s raining, I’ll drive you home.”

“Whenever I see his puppy, I have to laugh.”

Following are some physical activities to use instead of, or alongside, paper-and-pencil exercises.

Write a Sentence That Follows the Pattern

I give them a subordinate conjunction and another word, and ask them to use both words in a sentence that fits the pattern. For example, I might give them “when” and “monkey” to follow the pattern: “When dada dada comma BOOM period.” To encourage interesting sentences, I remind people that we refuse to be bored. We want something exciting like:

“When the lion came in, the monkey hid under the table.”

“When the monkeys found the bananas, they jumped up and down.”

I go around to help with spelling, then ask everyone to write their sentence where everyone can see it (i.e., on the board or in the chat). We read the sentences, with emphasis on the pattern.

Writing on Your Feet

I prepare some sentences with two clauses, then type each clause on a separate sheet of paper. I shuffle the papers, distribute one to each learner, and ask them to match themselves up into complete sentences. When all have found a match, each pair reads their sentence to the group. Alternatively, learners write their sentence on the board, and I review them with the group.

If you are working one-to-one, put the clauses with the subordinate conjunctions in one pile, and the main clauses in a separate pile. Ask the learner to choose one from each pile to make a complex sentence. Similarly, in the variations that follow, a learner can join the pieces together to make a sentence on the table. These may be copied if the learner needs to practice writing or typing.

Make similar adjustments for the variations that follow.