ShmoopTube

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

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Sometimes it's nice to keep things simple... [A pizza appears]

00:16

A simple pepperoni pizza.

00:17

A simple bright red bicycle.

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A simple haircut. [Man riding a bike]

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But other times, it's fun to complicate things a little bit.

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Every single topping ever!

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A jet pack, rocket launcher and disco ball bike!

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And a fully-functioning flying drone weaved right into your hair! [Man riding a bike with a drone flys off with his hair]

00:32

Okay, we might have gone a little too far on that last one.

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Anyway, the point is, complicating things can be fun!

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And we already know about simple and compound sentences so today, let's complicate it! [Finger transforms painting of stickman to assorted colors]

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But because we're nice, we'll give you a recap…

00:45

Simple sentences have one compete thought with a noun, a verb, a capital letter and [Coop discussing simple sentences]

00:49

an ending punctuation mark.

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A compound sentence, on the other hand, is when two complete thoughts are glued together

00:55

with a comma and conjunction. [Dino teaching about compound sentences]

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So you know about conjunctions – but maybe you're having a hard time remembering all of them.

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And hey, it is a lot to remember, so we get it.

01:06

We barely remember our own name!

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But we know it now!

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It's…it's… [People sitting in a meeting room]

01:12

….Shoot.

01:13

We forgot it again.

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Why does this keep happening?!

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…Anyway!

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If you're having trouble remembering all the conjunctions, we have one more trick up our [Hand removes piece of paper from up sleeve]

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sleeves for ya…

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Just remember the word FANBOYS!

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That's...

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For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So.

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Fanboys!

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Any time you see one of these after a comma, voila, you've got yourself a compound sentence.

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Nifty, huh?

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Phew.

01:33

Recap over!

01:34

You can take those stylish caps off now. [Girl has cap taken off her head and stands by painting]

01:36

It's time to get a little more complex…

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With complex sentences!

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Here's the thing about complex sentences.

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They have a comma, just like a compound sentence... [Dino teaching complex sentences]

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But plot twist!

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This comma isn't followed by a conjunction.

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Instead, the comma is used to separate a dependent and independent clause.

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Confused?

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We don't blame you.

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So let's get to an example.

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“If I turn in all my homework this week, my teacher will give me a piece of candy.” [Example of complex sentence]

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See how the comma separates the sentence into two sentences?

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Well, if this was simply a compound sentence, then those two sentences should be complete ideas.

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But look at the first half...

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“If I turn in all my homework this week.” [First half of sentence highlighted yellow]

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That's certainly not a complete thought.

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We call that a “dependent clause” since it depends on the second half of the sentence.

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Meanwhile, the second half, “My teacher will give me a piece of candy” is a complete

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thought, so we call that an independent clause since it can be independent, aka stand all

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by itself, and still make sense.

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Here's a few more examples…

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After five years, she still had feelings for him. [Examples of complex sentences]

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See how, "after five years," isn't a complete sentence, but "she still had feelings for him," is?

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Yup!

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Complex sentence.

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And one more…

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Even though my sister invited me, I decided not to go to the party.

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"Even though my sister invited me," isn't complete, "I decided not to go to the party" is! [Dependent clause highlighted yellow]

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Phew.

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Easy as pie.

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Complex sentences...

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Not so complex after all, huh? [Person draws a line through complex and replaces with simple]

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One could say complex sentences are actually pretty simple.

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Except don't say that.

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They're definitely complex.

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