3) Complex sentences A complex sentence includes one independent clause and one dependent clause. An example of this is conditionals
. Dependent clauses could also start with a relative pronoun, such as who , which , or that, or they could be formed
using subordinating conjunctions, namely, because , since , after , etc.
For example Because
it was late, she decided not to call him.
As
there is severe air pollution , elderlies should stay at home.
If
the government does not act now, there will be irreversible repercussions.
The dependent clause should be followed by a comma if it initiates the complex sentence. I ended up reading the book for five hours
since
it was very engaging .
A giraffe is an animal
that
lives in Africa .
The government must make strict rules
if
traffic needs to be controlled .
No comma is required if the complex sentence ends with the dependent clause. In all the sentences above, the clauses starting with a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun are
dependent (underlined sections) because their meanings are not complete on their own, and they rely on the
independent clauses (sections that are not underlined) to be completely meaningful.
4) Compound-complex sentences Compound-complex sentences are simply a combination of one compound sentence and one complex sentence.
These structures produce long sentences, which are quite valuable in academic writing as they provide better
fluency and flow of ideas; however, keeping a balance in using them is vital as overusing compound-complex
sentences could create confusion in writing.
For example She finished her assignment, but she did not have time to review her lessons
even though she had a test
the day after
.
He likes to tidy up his room, but he does not like to organize his closet
because he finds it time-
consuming
.
I saw her again at work, and I recognized her from the other night
when we were at the party
.
There is one compound sentence (in black) connected to a dependent clause (in blue) by a subordinating
conjunction or a relative pronoun forming a compound-complex structure in all these examples.
Prepositions A common area of grammatical mistakes in the IELTS writing test is around “prepositions.” Some prepositions,
also known as
dependent prepositions
, collocate nouns, verbs, or adjectives, and some of them were briefly
discussed in the “collocations” section. Other prepositions are classified as
independent prepositions
under
different categories. The most common
independent prepositions
are as follows:
