- [Voiceover] Hello, grammarians.
Hello, Rosie.
- [Voiceover] Hi, Paige.
So in this video we're gonna talk about complex sentences.
We've talked in another video
about simple and compound sentences,
so, that is like one independent clause
or two independent clauses.
And with a complex sentence,
we're gonna introduce something called a dependent clause.
So a sentence needs at least one independent clause
to function as a sentence.
But with complex, we're gonna add this dependent clause.
So, Rosie, what's an example of a complex sentence?
- [Voiceover] When we buy his birthday cake,
we have to make sure it's lemon. (chuckles)
- [Voiceover] So this sentence,
when we buy his birthday cake,
we have to make sure it's lemon,
is made up of two clauses,
and I've written them in different colors here.
So,
the second one, the pink one,
can stand on its own as a sentence.
We could just say, we have to make sure it's lemon.
- [Voiceover] It functions as an independent clause,
as its own sentence.
We have some information that might be missing
from this sentence, because we don't necessarily know
what it's is, but we do have all the components
of an independent clause here.
We've got a subject, we, and a verb, have, have to,
and well we have multiple verbs. (laughs)
- [Voiceover] (laughs) Yeah, got a lot of
have to make sure.
- [Voiceover] So the sentence is relying
on some information that's not provided,
but it does still stand as its own sentence.
- [Voiceover] Right, like we can have a sentence before it
that's like, we're gonna go buy a birthday cake,
we have to make sure it's lemon, right,
those can be two separate sentences.
In this case we have this other clause,
this what's called a dependent clause.
We can't just say when we buy his birthday cake
as a sentence, that doesn't really stand on its own,
it doesn't convey the information
that a sentence needs to convey.
So we could have an independent clause or a sentence
that's just we buy his birthday cake.
It's kind of a weird construction,
I don't know that I would say that,
you could maybe say, we are buying his birthday cake.
But we buy his birthday cake still works as a sentence.
It has a subject we and a verb buy,
and it expresses a complete idea,
it's an action that's happening
and it tells you who's doing it.
But we add this thing called a subordinating conjunction,
that's this word when, here,
and that makes this into a dependent clause,
it can't be a sentence by itself,
so it depends on the latter clause,
we have to make sure it's lemon, to be part of a sentence.
Okay, so, Rosie, what's another example
of a complex sentence.
- [Voiceover] Although our tent was zipped up,
the sound of hyenas in the distance still frightened us.
- [Voiceover] So again, this sentence starts
with a dependent clause, although our tent was zipped up.
This would be independent if it said our tent was zipped up,
but again, we have this subordinating conjunction, although,
at the beginning.
And there's kind of a whole bunch
of different subordinating conjunctions.
They're sort of just something that you need to remember,
but essentially their job is
to connect clauses and sentences,
but also make things into dependent clauses.
- [Voiceover] One other thing, we were showing you
two sentences where the dependent clause is coming
before the independent clause, but that's not necessarily
always gonna be the case.
Like for example, we could've said,
the sound of hyenas in the distance frightened us
even though our tent was zipped up.
- [Voiceover] Right, that would still be a complex sentence,
it would be an independent clause and a dependent clause,
but just in a different order,
they don't have to be in this order that we've done twice.
Okay, so Rosie, what if I do something like this?
Like, when we buy his birthday cake,
we have to make sure it's lemon, because it's his favorite.
I think because it's his favorite
is a dependent clause, right?
- [Voiceover] That's right.
And this sentence still completely works
as a complex sentence, because you still just have
this one independent clause,
we have to make sure it's lemon,
but the thing about a complex sentence is
is you can add more than one dependent clause if you want
and it's still considered a complex sentence.
- [Voiceover] Okay, so it has to have
just one independent clause.
- [Voiceover] Right.
- [Voiceover] But I guess,
as many dependent clauses as you want?
- [Voiceover] Yeah, you can go crazy.
- [Voiceover] Okay, cool.
So I think that's complex sentences.
It's an independent clause that can be a sentence by itself
and one or more dependent clauses
which can't be sentences by themself
all put together in one big sentence.
Does that sound right, Rosie?
- [Voiceover] Sounds good to me, Paige.
- [Voiceover] Cool.
You can learn anything, Paige out.
- [Voiceover] Rosie out.