Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham, and I'm really delighted to be joining you today to teach you about different sentence structures.

We're going to be learning some really important grammar today, so let's get going.

Today's lesson is called Three Sentence Types, and it comes from our unit called simple compound, adverbial and relative complex sentences.

By the end of today's lesson, you're going to be able to say and write three different sentence structures.

Now, this lesson is going to be so useful to you as you try and improve your writing this year.

That's because good writers use a range of different sentence structures and mix them up to make interesting and exciting writing for their readers.

In this lesson we're going to learn three different sentence structures that you'll be able to use in your writing all the way through this year.

So let's get going.

Let's start by looking at our keywords.

My turn, your turn.

Main clause, simple sentence, compound sentence, adverbial complex sentence and subordinate clause.

Now, if you did the last lesson, you might recognise some of those keywords.

If you don't remember them, don't panic.

We're going to have lots and lots of work on them during this lesson.

So by the end of the lesson you should be really confident.

Let's start by looking at their definitions.

A main clause is a group of words that contains a verb and makes complete sense on its own.

A simple sentence is a sentence about one idea that makes complete sense.

A compound sentence is formed of two main clauses and a coordinating conjunction.

Don't worry, we'll come to that word later in the lesson.

A subordinate clause is a group of words that contains a verb and does not make complete sense, and an adverbial complex sentence is formed of a main clause and an adverbial subordinate clause.

Now there were lots of tricky words there, but don't worry, we'll come through to them as we go through the lesson.

So here's our lesson outline.

We're going to be learning three sentence types.

We'll start by looking at simple sentences.

Then we'll move on to looking at compound sentences, and we'll finish by looking at adverbial complex sentences.

So we've got lots to get through.

Let's get going looking at simple sentences.

We learned in the last lesson that our main clause is a group of words that contains a verb and makes complete sense on its own.

The wild wind howled.

Stop what you're doing.

Is Jun here? What a glorious day it is! Can you spot the verbs in these clauses? Remember, verbs can show being and having as well as doing.

Here they are.

The wild wind.

Howled is the verb there.

You're, means you are, and are is a being verb.

Is, is a being verb as well.

And we can see at the end of a sentence here.

So we've got verbs showing, doing, being and having.

These are all main clauses and that's because they could all be a sentence on their own.

Your turn.

Let's see if you understood that.

Can you see if you can spot which of these are main clauses? Pause the video and decide which of these could be a sentence on their own, which would make them a main clause.

Have a go.

Great work.

I'm sure you spotted, we played together, could be its own sentence, it's a main clause.

And Sophia sat quietly, could be a sentence on its own, so it's a main clause.

Played together, couldn't be a sentence and nor could, sat quietly.

They need something else to make them a sentence.

So a main clause has a superpower.

It can make a complete sentence on its own.

A you might remember our character, Main, from last lesson.

Main is powerful and special because it can make its own sentence.

Look at these.

We've turned them from main clauses into complete sentences.

They've got a capital letter and some punctuation at the end.

We can see a full stop, an exclamation mark, a question mark, and another exclamation mark.

These are complete sentences.

They're main clauses.

A sentence which is made of just one main clause like these with just one idea is called a simple sentence.

There's one of our keywords for the lesson.

So which of these are true for a simple sentence? It has just one main clause.

It's about one idea.

It makes complete sense.

And it has more than one main clause.

Pause the video and decide which are true.

For a simple sentence like the ones we've just seen.

Well done.

A simple sentence has just one main clause.

It's about just one idea and it makes complete sense.

It doesn't have more than one main clause.

Well done.

Now there are four types of simple sentence.

We're going to try and learn them really quickly now.

You're doing a great job.

So let's try and push on even further.

The first type is a statement.

A statement is a simple sentence that expresses, that means shows a fact or an opinion.

For instance, the building was very impressive.

There's so much history in this place here we can see people making statements which they believe are true.

Another type of simple sentence is a command.

A command is a simple sentence that tells someone to do something and it starts with what we call an imperative verb.

You might have heard of these as bossy verbs.

They're verbs that tell someone to do something.

For instance, put that down! Pack away your things straight away.

Put and pack away are telling someone to do something.

They're imperative verbs and every command includes an imperative verb.

Now I bet you spotted something interesting about the punctuation here.

You might have seen that the statement can end with a full stop or an exclamation mark and the command is the same.

So the reason for that is that in statements and commands, we use an exclamation mark when we're trying to show a strong emotion.

So maybe in the first command we see, Put that down! The teacher is upset with a child who's picked up something they shouldn't.

But in the second command, Pack away your thing straight away.

The teacher's not feeling a strong emotion, they're just telling the class what they want to happen.

So we've used a full stop.

Now have a look at these examples.

Which ones do you think are commands? And remember, you are looking for those bossy imperative verbs that are telling someone to do something.

Pause the video and see if you can spot the commands.

Great job.

Use a whisper voice.

, is a command, because use here is an imperative verb.

Someone is telling someone to use their whisper voice.

Another command is, Stop talking! There, stop is the imperative verb.

Someone is telling someone else what to do.

And you might have noticed one of those commands has a full stop and the other has an exclamation mark.

That tells us that Stop talking!, was said with lots more emotion than use a whisper voice.

Well done.

Now the next type of simple sentence is a question.

A question is a simple sentence that asks someone for an answer.

Where are we going? Did you know Aisha before today? How has he been lately? Questions always start with a question word.

We can see where, did and how in these examples.

And they're easy because they always end with a question mark.

So a question is very easy to spot.

But we know all main clauses and all simple sentences contain a verb.

Can you spot the verbs in these questions? They're tricky ones.

In, Where are we going?, are is a verb.

It's a being verb.

In the second one, know, is the verb.

And in the third one, we have two verbs.

Has and been.

A having verb and a being verb.

And we'll see that in questions we often have these kinds of having and being verbs.

So watch out for that.

Okay, let's try a true or false.

What's up?, is a complete simple sentence.

Do you think that's true or false? Pause video and have a think.

Well done.

It's true.

Now have a think about why.

Look at these two reasons and decide which one explains why 'What's up?' is a complete simple sentence.

Great job.

It's the second one.

It does contain a verb, but it's hidden away there.

We know that 'what's' is short for what is and 'is' is a being verb.

So 'What's up?' is a complete simple sentence that contains a verb.

Well done.

Now the final type of simple sentence is an exclamation.

And an exclamation is a simple sentence that shows or expresses strong emotion or surprise.

What a mess you've made! What a lot of snow has fallen! How tall he is! How clever you are! Now these are tricky.

So let's see what's special about exclamations.

An exclamation always starts with the word 'what' or the word 'how', and it always ends with an exclamation mark.

But we've seen that some other sentence types also end with an exclamation mark.

So it's not enough on its own to tell us it's an exclamation.

We need to look for that word 'what' or 'how' at the start.

Now they also have to contain a verb because they are main clauses made into simple sentences.

Can you spot the being and having verbs in these exclamations? You might have spotted 'you've', meaning, 'you have', we've got, has, is, and are.

Again, lots of being and having verbs in these exclamations.

Here's a really tricky two or false.

Oh no!, is an exclamation sentence.

True or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Great job.

That is false.

I wonder why? Have a look at the two explanations and decide which one explains why 'Oh no!' is not an exclamation sentence, even though it has an exclamation mark at the end.

Well done.

The reason 'Oh no!' is not an exclamation sentence is because it doesn't contain a verb.

It can't be a main clause if it doesn't contain a verb.

Also, it doesn't start with what or how, which we know has to come at the start of every exclamation sentence.

Really well done if you spotted that.

Okay, so for our first task to this lesson, I'm giving you a really quick one.

What I'd like you to do is think about each sentence I've written here and decide, is it a statement, a question, a command, or an exclamation? Let's read them.

How refreshing this is! The water was refreshing and delicious on a humid day.

How much water are you going to have? Drink plenty of water today.

Can you decide for each sentence what type of simple sentence it is? Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, let's have a look together.

Well done for trying that one.

'How refreshing this is!', starts with the word how and ends with an exclamation mark and it's got that being verb is.

That's an exclamation.

The second one, 'The water was refreshing and delicious on a humid day.

', is a statement.

It's telling us how someone felt about that water.

How much water are you going to have is the easy one.

It must be a question because it ends with a question mark and starts with that question word 'how.

' The last one is a command.

That word 'drink', at the start is the imperative verb.

It's the bossy verb that someone's using to tell someone to do something.

If you've got those four, great work, you've done a fantastic job so far.

So we've talked about simple sentences and the four different types of simple sentence.

Now we are going to move on to having a think about compound sentences.

We found safer that main clauses are groups of words that contain a verb which make complete sense on their own.

We're gonna look at compound sentences now, which is where we start to join main clauses together.

So let's look at two main clauses that are equally important.

That means they have the same weight.

One isn't more important than the other.

One doesn't rely on the other.

Let's have a look.

The Romans conquered Britain in 43 AD.

They stayed for nearly four centuries.

Now we could join those two ideas together into one compound sentence.

It would look like this.

The Romans conquered Britain in 43 AD and they stayed for nearly four centuries.

We've made a compound sentence.

A compound sentence is formed of at least two main clauses joined together.

A main clause and another main clause makes a compound sentence.

And you can see we've used main twice to show we're joining two main clauses to make one compound sentence.

Coordinating conjunctions are the words that join the main clauses together in a compound sentence.

And there are only three we need to know, and, or, and but.

So we can see that we have main, followed by a joining words, a coordinating conjunction, and then main again.

And that makes our compound sentence.

So what does a compound sentence always contain? Is it at least two main clauses? Is it a question mark? Is it at least two ideas of equal importance? That means equal weight? And is it a coordinating conjunction? Pause the video and decide which are always found in a compound sentence.

Well done.

We know a compound sentence has at least two main clauses.

It doesn't have to contain a question mark, but it does have at least two ideas of equal importance.

And those two main clauses are joined by that joining word, a coordinating conjunction.

Fantastic job, you guys.

So we know that there are three coordinating conjunctions that can be used to create a compound sentence and they each have a different job or purpose.

Let's take a look.

'And' is used for building on.

The light was off and the room was eerily dark.

So we already know the light is off and we're being told extra detail about what that was like.

'But' is used for contrast or to show a difference.

The light was off, but I could still see clearly.

We'd expect the person not to be able to see clearly because the light's off, but they're saying that they can, that actually is a contrast.

And finally, 'or' is used to show an option or a choice, or an effect.

This is a tricky one.

I better get dressed, or I'll certainly be late for school.

So there, the 'or' is showing us the effect.

If I don't get dressed, I will be late for school.

Now I'd like you to try and make some compound sentences yourself by deciding which is the best coordinating conjunction to place in each of these gaps.

We could go to the park, we could stay in.

We could go to the park, it is raining heavily.

We could go to the park, we could go on the swings.

Here are our coordinating conjunctions.

Pause the video and decide which one fits best in each gap to make a compound sentence.

Have a go.

Good job.

Let's have a look.

For the first one, We could go to the park or we could stay in.

That's showing a choice or an option, like we said.

We could go to the park, but it is raining heavily.

We've got a contrast between two different ideas.

It might be nice to go to the park, but it's raining.

And the last one, the second idea builds on the first.

We could go to the park and we could go on the swings while we are there.

They're joined together.

Let's take a look at some more example sentences and see if these are compound sentences too.

We could have coffee or tea.

Lucas went to London and Paris.

The weather was cloudy but warm.

Hmm? What do we notice about these three words that come after the coordinating conjunction? You might have spotted these are not main clauses.

They don't make sense on their own.

Tea is not a complete sentence, nor is Paris and nor is warm.

So these are simple sentences, they are not compound sentences.

Because remember in a compound sentence, the coordinating conjunction is joining together two main clauses.

In these sentences, we don't have two main clauses, so we don't have a compound sentence.

So what about this one? True or false? 'Izzy bought bananas and bread.

' is a compound sentence.

What do you think? Pause the video and decide.

Absolutely right.

It's false.

I wonder if you can explain why which of those explanations fits best.

Well done.

This is not a compound sentence because it does not contain two main clauses.

'Izzy bought bananas', is a main clause and then we have a coordinating conjunction 'and', but the word bread is not a main clause, so we don't have two main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, so we don't have a compound sentence.

Well done.

Okay.

For our second task, this lesson, I'd like you to see some writing.

Maybe imagine a visit to a park or perhaps your teacher will suggest a different place you could go.

I want you to write a compound sentence using each of the coordinating conjunctions about that place or that visit.

We know we start with main.

We add our joining word, a coordinating conjunction.

We have a second main clause and that completes our compound sentence.

Remember, each part of your sentence must be a main clause that would make sense on its own.

Pause the video now and have a go at writing those three sentences.

Well done for trying that.

Here are some example sentences I wrote.

Yours will be different, but just make sure you've got those two main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.

I decided to write, I ran straight to the slide and I stayed there as long as possible.

Both of those would be main clauses that could be a complete sentence on their own.

I wrote, 'I desperately wanted to have a go on the swings, 'but they were always busy.

' That shows a contrast.

I wanted to do it whilst I couldn't.

And for 'or', I wrote, 'We could go on the merry-go-round, 'or we could continue playing Stuck in the Mud.

' There I've showed a choice between two things and that's why I've used 'or'.

Very well done if you've managed to get something similar.

Wow, we've already learned so much.

We've learned about simple sentences and we've learned about compound sentences.

In the last part of our lesson, we are going to learn about adverbial complex sentences.

We've already learned that a subordinate clause is a group of words that contains a verb but does not make complete sense on its own.

And we've used our character subordinate to show that subordinate doesn't have the superpower, main does.

Remember, 'main', can make a complete sentence on its own, but subordinate can't.

Here are some examples.

Because it was time to go home.

As the light shone through the towering trees.

When she lived next door.

None of these three could be a complete sentence on their own.

They're all subordinate clauses, not main clauses.

Which of the following are subordinate clauses? Pause the video and decide which of these contains a verb, but could not be a complete sentence on its own.

Have a go.

Well done.

'Alex dressed quickly', makes complete sense in its own.

It's a main clause.

'So he would not be late for school', contains a verb 'be' and word 'but', does not make complete sense.

It's a subordinate clause.

'Sophia leaked across the stream', makes complete sense.

It's a main clause.

But 'when they entered the building', has the verb entered, but doesn't make complete sense on its own.

So it's a subordinate clause.

Great job if you've got those.

Now a subordinate clause needs to be linked to a main clause to make a complex sentence if we want to make it make sense.

Here's an example.

As the door slammed shut, the room seemed to shake.

'As the door slammed shut', is our subordinate clause.

We've added it to the main clause, 'the room seemed to shake', and now it makes complete sense.

It's a complex sentence.

We've got a subordinate clause followed by a main clause to make a complex sentence.

We can do it the other way.

The room seemed to shake as the door slammed shut.

Here, the subordinate clause come second after the main clause.

We've got our main clause followed by subordinate clause.

In both cases we've made a complex sentence.

So which of the following is true for a complex sentence? It has two main clauses.

It has a main clause and a subordinate clause.

Or, it has two subordinate clauses.

Pause the video and decide which one is true for a complex sentence.

Good job.

It's B.

A complex sentence has a main clause and a subordinate clause which are joined together just like in the examples we just saw.

Now to do that joining together, we need a conjunction.

A conjunction is the word that joins words, phrases, or clauses together.

And one type of conjunction is a subordinating conjunction.

Those are words like, as, when, so, and because.

And a subordinating conjunction starts a special type of subordinate clause called an adverbial clause.

So if a clause starts with a subordinating conjunction, it is an adverbial clause.

Here are some complex sentences and we're going to find the adverbial clause inside them by looking for the subordinating conjunction.

Let's have a go.

As the clouds parted, the moon shun down brightly.

'As' is a subordinating conjunction.

So the adverbial clause, that type of subordinate clause must be, 'as the clouds parted.

' And the main clause is, 'the moon shone down brightly.

' And number two, I can see the subordinating conjunction 'when', that must start the adverbial clause, 'when the bell sounded'.

So the main clause must be, 'Izzy and Lucas stood up instantly'.

In the final sentence, I can see the subordinating conjunction 'because', that must start the adverbial clause, 'Because earth orbits the Sun', which means the main clause is, 'we have night and day.

' Notice how the adverbial clause can come first or second in the sentence, but it's always the part that starts with the subordinating conjunction.

When we join an adverbial clause to a main clause, we've made a type of complex sentence called an adverbial complex sentence.

Here are two more examples.

Jacob was gazing outta the window as Sophia shared her poem.

'As Sophia shared her poem' is our adverbial clause, starting with that subordinating conjunction.

So we've got our main clause followed by an adverbial subordinate clause.

We could flip it around.

As Sophia shared her poem, Jacob was gazing out of the window.

This time, the adverbial clause comes first.

So we've got an adverbial subordinate clause followed by a main clause.

Both of these are adverbial complex sentences.

So which three of these will we always find in an adverbial complex sentence? A main clause, an adverbial clause, an exclamation mark or a subordinating conjunction.

Pick three, pause the video and have a go.

Good job.

An adverbial complex sentence is made up of, a main clause, joined two adverbial clause with a subordinating conjunction.

So all three of those will always be an an adverbial complex sentence.

Well done.

Now our final task for today is going to be a little bit of a writing task.

I'd like you to try and complete the adverbial clause for each of these sentences to make an adverbial complex sentence.

And this time I've given you the main clause in blue.

Let's just look at number one.

'Laura dashed quickly to the football pitch' is the main clause.

I've started the adverbial clause with the subordinating conjunction 'when', and I want you to complete that adverbial clause to make this an adverbial complex sentence.

So I'd like you to pause the video and take your time to write those five sentences as adverbial complex sentences.

Have a go.

Great effort.

Here are some example sentences I've written.

Laura dashed quickly to the football pitch when the bell rang for lunch.

There's my adverbial clause in black.

A cool breeze whipped against my face as I strode along the deserted beach.

Andeep listened intently so he had the best chance of winning the game.

Because we were very late to getting home, Alex's mom was absolutely furious.

When they won the Attendance Award, Class Four cheered joyfully.

Now you can see in those last two sentences, the adverbial clause has come at the start, but all five of these are adverbial complex sentences made up of a main clause joined to an adverbial clause using a subordinating conjunction.

Fantastic work if you've managed to do that, you've done a great job.

Wow, what's a lot we've got through today.

Let's summarise what we've learned.

We learned that a simple sentence is formed of just one main clause.

We learned there are four types of simple sentence, statements, commands, questions, and exclamations.

We then learned that a compound sentence is formed of two or more main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, and there are three, and, or, but.

Then we finally learned that an adverbial complex sentence is formed of an adverbial clause placed before or after a main clause.

And remember that adverbial clause will start with a subordinating conjunction.

You've done a fantastic job this lesson.

We've learned an awful lot and you've really done a great job to stick with it.

I've really enjoyed teaching you, and I'd like you to go and try our exit quiz now to see if you can test what you've learned.

I hope to see you again soon.