The Compound-Complex Sentence

Learn About It

A compound-complex sentence is made up of two (or more) independent clauses and one (or more) subordinate clause.

Just as the name implies, it is made up of a compound sentence and a complex sentence. If you need a refresher on compound sentences or complex sentences, click on the links and check them out.

Examples:

• Rachael Ray explained how cookies are made, and we practiced her techniques at home.
• I would have used the recipe that Kari gave me, but her cookies taste funny.
• Because we had lots of cookies, we had a party, and our guests ate the freshly baked treats.

The independent clauses are pretty simple and boring. They are able to stand all alone without any help from anything else.

But remember that subordinate clauses can have any number of jobs. (There are adjective clauses, adverb clauses, and noun clauses.)

The sentence diagram will look different depending on what type of subordinate clause you have.

Noun Clause

For instance, here is one with a noun clause acting as the direct object of one of the independent clauses. And, of course, it's easy to tell that it's a noun clause because the whole clause is taking up the place of the direct object- which is a noun job.

Note: If this is making your head spin, read about clauses

Rachael Ray explained how cookies are made, and we practiced her techniques at home.

How cookies are made is a noun clause acting as the direct object of the verb explained.

Adjective Clause

Here a sentence with an adjectival subordinate clause. It's easy to see that the subordinate clause is acting as an adjective because it is modifying the subject. (See how the subordinate clause is connected to the subject with a dotted line?)

Adjective clauses don't have to modify the subject. They can modify any noun or pronoun in a sentence.

I would have used the recipe Kari gave me, but her cookies taste funny.

(that) Kari gave me is an adjective clause modifying the noun recipe. The word (that) is an elliptical relative pronoun. You can read more about these on this page.

Adverb Clause

And finally, here is a basic sentence diagram with the subordinate clause being an adverb clause. You can tell the clause is acting as an adverb because it is modifying a verb. See?

Because we had lots of cookies, we had a party, and our guests ate the freshly baked treats.

Because we had lots of cookies is an adverb clause modifying the verb had.

Understand the compound-complex sentence? Learn about other sentence structures.

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