What is a compound sentence?

A compound sentence generally joins two simple sentences together. You can use words such as 'and', 'or' and 'but' to join the ideas. These are called connectives.

For example:

• It was cold but we still went to town.
• It was raining and we stayed indoors.

This makes the two ideas equal in the sentence - if you take away one part of it, you are left with a simple sentence again. These are very common when speaking and they are not difficult to understand.

Connectives

The important thing with compound sentences is to look at the word that joins the two simple sentences:

• and is used to add extra information to support the information given in the first part of the sentence
• but is used to give a different point of view or idea from that given in the first part of the sentence, and offers different perspectives or possibilities
• so is used to add extra information to build on the information given in the first part of the sentence
• or is used to add alternative information to support the information given in the first part of the sentence
• yet is usually used to show that there are other ways of looking at things, and to introduce a different opinion to that given in the first part of the sentence
• however is also usually used to show that there are other ways of looking at things, and to introduce a different opinion to that given in the first part of the sentence

Adding the right amount of detail

One advantage of compound sentences is that a writer can build more detail into their writing. However, one problem is that some writers can get carried away and write long rambling sentences.

For example:

My friend came round and said, "Do you want to get out of the house for a while?" and I did so we went to town and walked around for a bit and then some women came over who we knew from work so we started talking to them and then we felt hungry so we…

Remember, care needs to be taken when using connectives. Two in a sentence is usually enough, and they don't need to be used in every sentence.

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