Chapter 12

Extending the Basic Sentence

Only connect.

—E.M. Forster

So far we have been fooling around with techniques that allow us to elaborate a single kernel sentence by adding to it words or phrases that act as modifiers, either bound or free. Now let’s turn to another essential way of adding more material to a single sentence: by combining it with other sentences. In order to learn how to do this, we need to add one more grammatical term to our vocabulary: the word clause.

Extending the Basic Sentence 1: Adding Together Independent Clauses

An independent clause is a group of words that can stand alone as a complete sentence; that is, it contains both a subject and a predicate. The sentences we have been constructing so far are all independent clauses: Kernels and elaborated kernels are both independent clauses. (A sentence made up of only one independent clause is also known as a simple sentence.)

Independent clauses can be added together to make longer sentences:

To add sentences together in this way comes naturally to us—just listen to any young child telling a story: And then the lion came and then the lion growled and then the lion ate the pig. To create longer sentences by adding together two or more independent clauses, we need to use a particular group of conjunctions called coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, or, nor, yet, and so.

Coordinating conjunctions join words or groups of words that are equal in structure: two nouns, for instance, or two prepositional phrases. So these conjunctions are the ones we use when we want to combine independent clauses.

Writers of fiction and narrative nonfiction often use and to join independent clauses, thus creating forward motion, a narrative pace.

They also frequently make use of and at the beginning of sentences, to create cohesion.

Practice: Join Independent Clauses

Write a number of independent clauses. Then, using coordinating conjunctions, join them together, two or three at a time. Read over these longer sentences. What do you notice?

Perhaps you noticed that you had to stop and think about which coordinating conjunction to use. Do you want to write It was raining, and we stayed home? Or It was raining, but we stayed home? Or It was raining, so we stayed home? Your choice depends on your intended meaning.

Conjunctions like and or but may appear to lack meaning, but you may find as you play with them that this is not the case. It’s been suggested that and indicates “continuous and repeated action,” while but suggests “contrast, opposition, or negation.” A number of writers (Oscar Wilde, Edgar Arlington Robinson, and others) have been named as the source of a quote that says, in effect, “I spent the entire morning putting an and into my manuscript, and the entire afternoon taking it out.” Coordinating conjunctions may be short words, but they have a lot of power!

You may also have noticed that combining the same independent clauses in different orders sometimes results in different meanings. For example: The two dogs growled at each other, and then they fought. This is not the same as The two dogs fought, and then they growled at each other. Remember, always, that you are putting groups of words into your readers’ minds one group at a time. The order in which you present these groups helps determine the sense readers make out of them. Keeping this principle in mind enables you to craft sentences that take your readers exactly where you want them to go.

Grammarians tell us that when we join two independent clauses, we must punctuate the resulting sentence with a comma after the first independent clause (before the conjunction). Professional writers, especially writers of fiction, often choose to ignore this rule, omitting the conjunction or using other punctuation marks.

Joining Independent Clauses Without Conjunctions

Sometimes professional writers will choose to join independent clauses by using punctuation alone, without a conjunction. This technique is called asyndeton. (Asyndeton can also be used with single words or phrases.)

When a writer makes use of asyndeton, he can juxtapose two images or ideas without making explicit the connection between them; he can create emphasis; and he can create an effect of accelerated motion or intensity, or a sense of things happening simultaneously. For instance:

Often clauses put together without conjunctions are kernels, or kernels only slightly elaborated. Trying to put together longer clauses using asyndeton is trickier, and, if you attempt this, you may find yourself accused of having made a grammatical error known as the comma splice. (Asyndeton with clauses and the comma splice refer to exactly the same thing, so grammar snobs may object no matter what!) To decide whether you are using asyndeton well, you need to read your sentences out loud and listen to them. If you have a good reason for omitting the conjunction between two independent clauses, then you will be able to justify your choice.

Asyndeton can also be used with compound predicates, as in this example:

Joining Independent Clauses with Other Punctuation

Ordinarily, grammatical convention demands that independent clauses connected by punctuation alone must be joined not with a comma, but with a semicolon, a dash, or a colon. Most writers, especially of nonfiction, follow the convention—at least most of the time. For example:

The Pros Combine Independent Clauses

1. Using coordinating conjunctions:

2. Using commas:

3. Using Dashes

4. Using semicolons:

5. Using semicolons and conjunctions:

6. Using colons:

Practice: Use Punctuation to Join Independent Clauses

Experiment with writing independent clauses and joining them together in the ways discussed above.

The Value of Joining Independent Clauses

When we join independent clauses, we create a compound sentence. Knowledge of different ways of joining independent clauses will provide you with more options for making sentences. Now you’ll be able to make sentences of different length, to create rhythm and variety. You’ll also be able to create effects by using short and long sentences together.

Compound sentences, like simple sentences, can be plain or elaborated with modifiers. Now you have four kinds of sentences at your disposal: the plain kernel (or independent clause); the elaborated kernel; the compound sentence; and the elaborated compound sentence.

Practice: Elaborated Compound Sentences

Write some kernel sentences and then combine two or more of them into compound sentences. Now rewrite one or more of these compound sentences, elaborating them using any of the techniques you learned in the last chapter. Try writing some elaborated compound sentences without starting from kernels. What do you notice in doing this practice?

Extending the Basic Sentence 2: Adding Dependent Clauses

There’s another way to extend the basic sentence besides joining two or more independent clauses. You can add to your basic sentence a different kind of clause: a dependent clause.

To add together two independent clauses is to join two groups of words of equal importance, two structures that each have a subject and a predicate: in other words, two kernels or two elaborated kernels, or one plain kernel and one elaborated one. To join an independent clause and a dependent clause is to do something a little bit different: namely, to make one clause “depend” (grammatically speaking) on another.

This process may sound confusing, but in fact we make sentences containing dependent clauses all the time in ordinary speech: If she doesn’t get here soon, I’m leaving. Or The man you want is the one who is wearing the brown coat. Let’s see if we can get a better understanding of what we are doing when we construct such sentences.

A dependent clause, like an independent one, has to contain a subject and a predicate; otherwise it couldn’t be a clause. But while it’s easy to identify the subject and the predicate in an independent clause, and to understand at once that an independent clause can stand alone as a complete sentence, such identification is harder to do with dependent clauses. That’s because dependent clauses are altered independent clauses, and it’s this alteration that makes them “dependent” on—or subordinate to—independent clauses.

There are two main ways that we turn independent clauses into dependent ones: by using subordinating conjunctions, and by using relative pronouns. When we take the first approach, the dependent clauses we create are known as subordinate clauses. When we take the second approach, the dependent clauses we create are known as relative clauses.

Making Dependent Clauses 1: Using Subordinating Conjunctions

Suppose we have two independent clauses: Bill failed his exam. His father was disappointed. If we join these two clauses with the coordinating conjunction and, we will have this sentence: Bill failed his exam, and his father was disappointed. By joining the clauses in this way we have made a connection between the meaning of the first sentence and the meaning of the second. Try reading the sentence out loud. How does it sound to you? Perhaps to your ear it sounds fine. And certainly, according to the rules of grammar, there are no grammatical errors in this sentence. And yet …

One of the things that professional writers do is to try, as best they can, to make the meaning of their sentences absolutely clear to their readers. One way they do that, as we saw in the sections on word choice, is to select exactly the right words that convey their meaning. Another way they create clarity for readers is to arrange words and phrases in sentences in exactly the right order. And a third technique they use, when they combine two or more clauses into a single sentence, is to show exactly how the statement one clause makes connects with the statement another clause makes.

To make connections between one statement and another is not, as so many inexperienced writers assume, the responsibility of the reader; it is the duty of the writer. The work of writing requires us to think about these connections, if not while we are getting our first ideas down on the page, then certainly as we revise. That’s because a large part of the meaning of a piece of writing resides, not in individual words or phrases or clauses, but in the ways word is connected to word, phrase to phrase, clause to clause. When a writer fails to make clear the connection between the elements in a sentence, the reader will not know what he is trying to say.

Dependent clauses give writers another tool to make their meaning clear to readers. Bill failed his exam, and his father was disappointed. An experienced writer will read that sentence and think to herself, If I write the sentence that way, I won’t be making clear to the reader exactly what the relationship is between the two parts of the sentence. And so, she will rewrite, perhaps like this: Because Bill failed his exam, his father was disappointed. Now the exact relationship, the specific connection, between the two statements is clear, and her readers will be able to understand her meaning.

Practice: Make Subordinate Clauses

Write some independent clauses. Now turn them into subordinate clauses by adding to each one a subordinating conjunction: if, though, because, before, after, since, as, while, when, where, unless, although. (These are some of the most commonly used subordinating conjunctions; if you want a complete list, consult a good grammar book.) You may not be able to turn all your independent clauses into dependent ones; use your ear and your common sense.

Note the pattern for creating this kind of dependent clause:

Now select some of those subordinate clauses and turn them into complete sentences by adding one or more independent clauses. Read your sentences out loud. What do you notice?

Making Dependent Clauses 2: Using Relative Pronouns

The other most common way to construct dependent clauses also begins with an independent clause. But in this approach, instead of adding something to the independent clause, we take something away: We substitute a relative pronoun for the word or phrase that is the subject of the clause.

Suppose you have two independent clauses: The man is laughing loudly. He is wearing a brown coat. It’s possible to combine them using a coordinating conjunction, but the result may not be satisfactory: The man is laughing loudly, and he is wearing a brown coat. Your ear will tell you, That construction doesn’t sound right! If you try to use a subordinating conjunction, your ear will again object. Because the man is laughing loudly, he is wearing a brown coat. Nope. That makes no sense. Those of you who have practiced phrases will immediately see a way to rewrite the sentence so it does make sense: The man in the brown coat is laughing loudly.

Here’s another option: The man who is wearing a brown coat is laughing loudly. To construct this sentence we have replaced the pronoun he with the relative pronoun who, thereby turning the independent clause he is wearing a brown coat into a particular kind of dependent clause known as a relative clause. Now the clause reads who is wearing a brown coat.

You will see right away that the clause who is wearing a brown coat, while it has a subject (who) and a predicate (is wearing a brown coat), can’t stand alone as a sentence; it has to “depend” on another independent clause, in this case The man is laughing loudly.

Practice: Make Relative Clauses

Write some short independent clauses. Now turn them into relative clauses by replacing the subject with a relative pronoun, such as who, whom, whose, which, or that. Note the pattern for creating relative clauses:

Now complete each sentence by combining the relative clause with an independent clause. Read your sentences out loud. What do you notice?

Note that the word that is sometimes omitted from relative clauses, especially in informal writing: The dress [that] I wore was green with white trim. Sometimes writers feel confused about relative pronouns; if you're not sure whether to use that or which, for example, or who or whom, consult your grammar book.

What Dependent Clauses Do

Now that we’ve explored how to make dependent clauses, let’s take a look at some of the things they can do in sentences. There are three main roles that dependent clauses can play: They can serve as adverbs, as adjectives, and as nouns.

The Role of Dependent Clauses 1: Adverbs

Most of the time, dependent clauses created with subordinating conjunctions take the role of adverbs in their sentences. In this role they are known as adverb clauses. For example:

The subordinate clause because the weather forecast promised rain explains why Joe took the umbrella, and modifies the verb, took; therefore, the subordinate clause—in its entirety—is serving as an adverb. Many other sentences follow this pattern:

Most of the time, sentences that follow this pattern don’t require punctuation between the independent and subordinate clauses.

Sometimes, though, writers like to reverse the order of the two clauses, putting the subordinate clause first:

In this case, a comma follows the subordinate clause.

An adverb clause can also modify a verbal. For example:

Practice: Subordinate Clauses as Adverbs

Try writing sentences using subordinate clauses as adverbs, following either of the preceding patterns. Try using verbals other than infinitives, if you like.

The Role of Dependent Clauses 2: Adjectives

When we make dependent clauses using relative pronouns, these clauses usually function as adjectives in their sentences; in this case, they are known as adjective clauses. For example:

The dependent clause who stopped by last night serves—in its entirety—as an adjective modifying the noun phrase The man.

Writers sometimes feel confused about the punctuation of adjective clauses. Here are some tips to help.

The words who, whom, which, and that are the most commonly used relative pronouns. When you begin an adjective clause with one of these words, you need to decide whether or not the information the clause contains is essential to the meaning of the noun being modified. For instance, suppose you have the sentence The woman walked down the street. You want to add more information about the woman in an adjective clause: who was carrying a cocker spaniel. Perhaps you’ll write the new sentence like this: The woman who was carrying a cocker spaniel walked down the street. Or perhaps you’ll write it like this: The woman, who was carrying a cocker spaniel, walked off down the street. Your decision should be based on whether the information in the adjective clause is—or is not—essential to naming the woman. If you need that information to identify this particular woman and to distinguish her from others (perhaps another woman carrying a different breed of dog), then you will write the sentence without punctuation. If, however, the information in the adjective clause is not essential to identifying the woman, then you write the sentence with commas around the adjective clause. (When you have a sentence using an essential relative clause, sometimes it’s possible to omit the relative pronoun and turn the verb into a participle, creating an adjective phrase: The woman carrying a cocker spaniel walked down the street.)

Grammarians also tell us that the word that, when used as a relative pronoun, always indicates an essential dependent clause. Adjective clauses beginning with which, who, or whom may or may not be essential, depending on their meaning.

At the risk of creating hopeless confusion, I will add one more technique here: the use of words such as when, where, after, before, since, while, and why to create clauses that function as adjectives. You’ll remember you encountered these words just a little while ago, in their role as subordinate conjunctions, beginning clauses that function as adverbs. But through the mysterious ability of English words to take on many different roles in sentences, these same words can also act as relative adverbs; in this role they drive adjective (not adverb) clauses—like so:

In this sentence, the clause that begins with where modifies town, thus serving as an adjective clause.

Without punctuation, relative clauses function as bound modifiers; with punctuation, as free modifiers.

Practice: Relative Clauses as Adjectives

Experiment with using relative clauses as adjectives. If you get confused about “the rules,” consult a good grammar book.

The Role of Dependent Clauses 3: Nouns

Dependent clauses can sometimes serve as nouns. Here’s how:

Can you name the elements of this sentence? There’s a subject, the pronoun, I; there’s a main verb, know; and there’s a dependent clause, where he is—which is taking on the role of a noun serving as the direct object of the verb.

A noun clause can do almost anything a noun can do in sentences. For instance:

Practice: Noun Clauses

Noun clauses are a little tricky, but they can be fun to fool around with. Try writing some kernels and then see if you can replace any of the nouns with noun clauses. Or choose one of the structures above and imitate it to write a sentence using a noun clause. What do you think of this particular sentence structure?

The Options Provided by Dependent Clauses

Do I Want to Use a Word, a Phrase, or a Clause?

Like phrases, dependent clauses are groups of words that “go together,” that function as a unit. Like phrases, these word-groups can also take on the roles of nouns, or of adjectives or adverbs, in sentences. And so dependent clauses provide us with yet another way of saying things; along with single words and phrases, they give us limitless choice in constructing our sentences. For instance, do we want to write Mike kicked the cat hard? Or would we rather write Mike kicked the cat onto the floor (adverb phrase instead of single adverb)? Or perhaps we’d rather write this: When Mike got angry, he kicked the cat onto the floor (adverb clause added)?

So the first kind of option we have is whether to use single words, phrases, or clauses (or some combination thereof) for adjectives, adverbs, and nouns.

Practice: Choose Single Words, Phrases, or Clauses

Write some kernel sentences. Then take one of these and see if you can add single adverbs or adjectives (or both). Now rewrite the sentence substituting phrases as adjectives or adverbs, or including them in addition to single-word modifiers. Now rewrite the sentence again, using clauses instead of phrases, or adding clauses (if your sentence still makes sense this way). Now try substituting noun phrases or noun clauses for single nouns. What do you notice? Try this whole process again with more kernels.

And now rewrite your sentences, making choices among all these options.

Where Do I Put My Dependent Clause?

The second choice we need to make is where in our sentences dependent clauses should go. Often dependent clauses, like phrases, can serve as free modifiers. We can choose where in a sentence to put them: at the beginning, before the subject; at the end, after the main verb of the sentence; perhaps, sometimes, even in the middle, between the subject and the main verb.

How do we make these choices?

You’ll find it easier to make such choices as you train your word mind with practice and study, and as you imitate the sentences of professional writers; with this practice comes facility with single words, phrases, and clauses. And then, in the heat of composition, or—more likely—in revision, you’ll need to listen to your sentences and pay attention to what your ear is telling you. Do your sentences make sense? Will they be clear to your readers? Have you created enough movement and drama, or do you need to try another way of saying what you are trying to say? What about the rhythm of each sentence, the rhythm of all the sentences in a paragraph working together? These are the kinds of questions you can ask yourself as you revise (and revise, and revise …).

The most important things to hold onto in writing sentences are these: Always be aware of the basic kernel structure of English sentences; and keep in mind at all times the necessity for ordering the elements of your sentences. Look, for instance, at how these writers use all of the structures we’ve been talking about to create fairly long sentences that, however, never confuse the reader:

Practice: Place Dependent Clauses

Write some sentences using dependent clauses (subordinate or relative). Experiment with rewriting these sentences, placing the dependent clauses in a different place in the sentence (if the sentence still makes sense that way). What do you notice?

New Sentence Structures

When we use subordinate and relative clauses, we are doing two things. One of these—using clauses as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs—we have just explored. At the same time, when we use dependent clauses, we are creating new sentence structures.

Complex Sentences

When we combine one (or more) dependent clauses and an independent clause, we are creating what’s known as a complex sentence. Here’s the pattern for this kind of sentence:

Practice: Make Complex Sentences

Write some sentences according to the pattern for complex sentences. Try some with only one dependent clause; try some using more than one dependent clause. Read your sentences out loud. What do you notice?

Compound-Complex Sentences

There’s another common sentence pattern you’ll want to have in your repertoire: the compound-complex sentence. Here you add two or more independent clauses together along with one or more dependent clauses.

Practice: Make Compound-Complex Sentences

Write some sentences according to the pattern for compound-complex sentences. What happens when you do this? Read your sentences out loud. How do they sound to you?

The Pros Combine Independent and Dependent Clauses

1. With subordinating conjunctions:

2. With relative pronouns:

3. With both kinds of dependent clause:

Practice: Learning from the Pros

Look at the work of writers you like for how they use dependent clauses in constructing sentences, or go back and study the preceding examples. Copy out some of these sentences and imitate their structure (that is, use the same number of relative/subordinate and independent clauses in each sentence, and in the same order). Read your sentences out loud. What do you notice?

Practice: Combine Kernels in Different Ways

Write five or six kernels that all have the same subject. Now practice different ways of combining them. (Add new words if necessary.)

Making Choices in Sentence Structure

As you are undoubtedly realizing now, the use of dependent clauses can dramatically expand the possibilities for sentence construction. You can write kernels—short and syntactically simple. You can elaborate your kernels with bound or free modifiers, sometimes single words, sometimes phrases. You can add independent clauses (kernels or elaborated kernels) together via coordination. You can turn some of your independent clauses into dependent clauses and combine the two via subordination. You can make use of all these possibilities.

The choices you make in sentence structure help create your own style. They also create variations in rhythm, and they contribute to (or obscure) readability. With a command of sentence structures you can control the movement and drama of your sentences, thereby heightening suspense, shaping your readers’ experience, and riveting their attention.

As I’ve said, I recommend that you spend a good deal of time studying how professional writers use syntactic structures; then experiment with different sentence structures to see which ones you like.

Practice: Make Choices in Sentence Structure

Experiment with the sentence structures you’ve learned in any way that appeals to you. You may want to revise a passage of your own writing to make use of your new learning.

Take Time to Reflect

What has stood out for you in this chapter? Which techniques do you want to spend more time with? You may want to revise your practice list to give priority to these new techniques.