Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham and it's so nice to see you today for a lesson on simple and compound sentences.

Now this is a revision lesson where we're going to be reviewing some really important grammar knowledge.

I'm really looking forward to this one and I hope you are too.

So let's get to work.

Today's lesson is called Simple and Compound Sentences Revision from our unit called Review, including word class, sentence types, tense, commas, and colons.

By the end of today's session, we're going to be able to practise simple and compound sentence test questions.

Now we're going to look really carefully today at the four different types of simple sentence and at the three coordinating conjunctions we can use to start compound sentences.

And we'll look at how we can answer different test questions relating to both.

Let's get to work.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Simple sentence.

Main clause.

Compound sentence.

Coordinating conjunction, and comma.

Well done.

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

And a main clause is a group of words that contains a verb and makes complete sense.

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

And a coordinating conjunction is a word that joins two main clauses to form a compound sentence, and a comma has many functions, but it is a punctuation mark used before 'but' and 'or' coordinating conjunctions in a compound sentence.

So let's look at our lesson outline.

We're going to start off by looking at simple and compound sentences, and then we'll talk about the four different types of simple sentence.

So sentences, as you know, are punctuated with capital letters and full stops.

So we have this here, which is not punctuated with capitals and full stops.

It says, "soon, the temperature will be too high and when we need to come in try to make the most of your time outside".

Now you probably spotted that that should be two separate sentences, so we should write it like this.

A capital has to start the first sentence, 'Soon the temperature will be too high', and when we need to come in." A capital letter to start a new sentence, 'Try to make the rest of your time outside.

' So we've broken it into two sentences each punctuated with a capital at the start and a full stop at the end.

Now we also know that we use capitals for proper nouns for specific name, things, people, and places.

So if you look at this example, there's lots of capital letters and some full stops missing.

"we saw uncle dan on tuesday liverpool at a spanish restaurant for mum's birthday".

I bet you are already thinking of some of those words you want to add a capital letter to.

We should make it like this.

A capital W for the start of the sentence for 'we', and then 'Uncle Dan' is a name, so that both has capital letters.

'Tuesday' is the name of a day.

So that has a capital.

'Liverpool' is the name of a place, it has a capital.

'Spanish' is the name of a language or a culture, that has a capital.

And then we've put for 'mum's birthday'.

So we are using 'mum' like a name here.

So we're using a capital letter there and we'll talk more about that in a second.

And, of course, a full stop at the end of that sentence.

So let's practise that skill.

I wonder if you can insert all the capital letters and full stops that are needed in this passage.

Pause the video and have a try.

So hopefully, you got something like this.

A capital for O at the start of the sentence, capital for 'Friday' and 'Manchester' in that first sentence with a full stop afterwards.

We've got a capital for W in 'we' at the start of the next sentence.

And then 'People's History Museum' is all the name of the museum.

So each word in that will need a capital letter.

Another capital for 'we' in the start of the next sentence.

And then 'Manchester United' is the name of a team.

So it needs capitals for both parts of the name.

And then I've put a capital D for 'dad' here as well with a full stop at the end.

Now a quick point on that 'mom' and 'dad' issue.

If I said "my dad gave it to me", I don't use a capital because I'm not using it as his name there.

Now his name, obviously, isn't actually dad, but I'm not using it as his name in that context.

But if I just said, "Dad gave it to me", it's like I'm using it as a name.

So in that context I will use a capital letter.

So that's a little one to watch out for.

Really well done with that one.

Now a main clause, I'm sure you know, is a group of words that contains a verb and makes complete sense in its own.

For instance, "we have to make some sacrifices".

"Do you find this awkward?" I know these are main clauses 'cause they could make sense in their own and they contain a verb 'make' and 'find'.

Now a simple sentence is made up of one main clause and one idea, and it makes complete sense just like these.

So I can make these into simple sentences with a capital letter and some closing punctuation, which can be a full stop or a question mark or an exclamation mark.

Now a compound sentence is made of two or more main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.

And we can use BOA to remember these, 'but', 'or', and 'and'.

And those are the coordinating conjunctions.

So we could say, "You can listen to my explanation, or you can see me at break time." So I've got my first main clause, 'you can listen to my explanation', which could be a sentence on its own.

I've got my coordinating conjunction, 'or', and I've got a second main clause which could be a sentence on its own too, 'you can see me at break time'.

And notice how we don't have a capital letter in the middle of the sentence, we just have one at the start and a full stop at the end.

So in each sentence, what's the grammatical term? That means the formal term for the highlighted word or group of words, We've got, 'we must act fast', 'and', and then 'we have a responsibility to act'.

So what's the grammatical term for the highlighted part of each sentence? Pause the video and have a think.

So in A, we've got, 'we must act fast'.

Now this is a main clause because it contains a verb 'act' and it makes complete sense on its own.

It could be a sentence on its own, couldn't it? 'We must act fast'.

Instead it's being made part of a compound sentence with the other main clause, 'we have a responsibility to act', and it's being joined by the item we see in B.

So in B, we have 'and' highlighted, that is a coordinating conjunction because it's joining those two main clauses together to make a compound sentence with the coordinating conjunction in the middle.

And then the last one, we could describe this in two ways.

It's a simple sentence made up of one main clause.

So it makes complete sense in its own and it offers a fact.

So it's just a statement.

So this is a simple sentence made of one main clause about one idea.

It could be just a clause, but we've made it a sentence by giving a capital letter and in this case, a full stop.

Brilliant job if you made those grammatical terms correctly.

So each coordinating conjunction has a different purpose in a compound sentence.

So let's look at 'and'.

"We could go to the park and we could play cricket." We are adding two ideas together.

Let's look at 'but'.

"We could go to the park, but the weather is looking ominous." We are showing a contrast or a difference.

With 'or', we're saying, "We could go to the park or we could stay in and play board games." We are giving a choice, an option between two ideas.

So notice how we use a comma before 'but' and 'or' coordinating conjunctions, but we don't use a comma before 'and'.

That's an important rule to remember.

So coordinating conjunctions can also join longer sentences together too or what would be longer sentences, but we are joining them into one.

So here's an example of that.

"Because our team won the competition, Mr. Martinez took us to a cafe on the way home and he brought us bacon sandwiches, which we ate on the minibus." Now on either side of the coordinated conjunction 'and', we have what could be its own sentence.

We have 'because our team won the competition, Mr. Martinez took us to a cafe on the way home'.

That could be its own sentence.

And we've got, 'he brought us bacon sandwiches, which we ate on the minibus'.

That could be a sentence.

In fact, they're both complex sentences made of a subordinate clause joined to our main clause.

But we're joining both those complex sentences together with our coordinating conjunction 'and' in the middle.

So that's a good way of improving our text cohesion, the flow of our text by joining longer sentences together with these coordinating conjunctions.

So here are some longer sentences here.

Can you find the coordinating conjunction in each of these sentences and add any punctuation that's needed, remembering that rule we just discussed? Pause the video and have a try.

Great job.

So in A, hopefully, you spotted that 'but' is the coordinating conjunction and it needs a comma before it.

In B, I bet you spotted 'or' as the coordinating conjunction with a comma in front, and in C, we've got 'and' as the coordinating conjunction.

So we don't use a comma in that case.

Really well done for spotting those coordinating conjunctions hidden in the middle of these longer sentences, but hopefully, that gives you an idea of how these can be used to join really quite long sentences together into even longer ones with these coordinating conjunctions.

Great job.

So let's do our first task for this lesson.

I'm going to show you some sentences with a gap.

And in each one, I want you do the following.

Choose an appropriate coordinating conjunction.

And remember, BOA tells us our coordinating injunctions to fill that gap and add in any capital letters and punctuation you might need, including commas.

So here they are.

You can see, lots of capital letters are missing.

What needs to be added in here? Well, you've got a gap to put your coordinating conjunction.

You might need a full stop at the end.

You might need a comma in front of your coordinating conjunction.

You might need commas in other places as well.

You're gonna have to look really carefully at what punctuation is needed here.

So pause the video and look really carefully at these sentences to try and get them correctly punctuated with the coordinating conjunction that they need.

Have a go.

Well done, fantastic effort there.

Let's take a look at how they should look.

For A, I've got "Miss O'Neill listened carefully when I told her what Alex had done and I knew she would do her best to solve the problem before Monday." So we have to add capital letters for all three parts of 'Miss O'Neill', a capital letter for 'I', because when I's on its own, it's always capitalised.

Capital letters for 'Alex' and 'Monday' 'cause those are names.

And then I've got my coordinating conjunction 'and' with no comma in front.

Great job.

Now let's look at B.

I've got, "After the yacht left Spain, it headed towards France, but a storm blew it off course out into the Atlantic Ocean." So we've got lots of proper nouns here.

We have 'Spain', 'France', 'Atlantic Ocean', all of which need a capital letter.

Capital letter at the start for 'after'.

And then we had 'but' as our coordinator conjunction with a comma in front of it.

Really good job.

Let's look at C.

"'You can do this now, or you can complete it in your own time,' Mr. Martinez scowled during English, writing Sam's name on the board." So we had some proper nouns here as well, 'Mr. Martinez', 'English', and 'Sam' are all proper nouns, which are the capital.

A capital, of course, at the start for 'you'.

And a full stop at the end after 'board'.

And we used 'or' as our coordinating conjunction.

So we need that comma in front of it.

Really well done in that task.

You found so many different things.

Great work.

Okay, let's move on to the second part of our lesson.

We are going to think about the different types of simple sentence now.

Now we already said that a simple sentence is made of one main clause about one idea and makes complete sense on its own.

Let's talk about the different types.

So there are four types of simple sentence, a statement, a command, an exclamation, and a question.

A statement might look like this.

"It was so awkward!" "Mr. Martinez has asked me to take part." With saying a fact that's happened or an opinion that we have.

A command is when we're telling someone to do something or someone is being told to do something, just like, "Do your work!" "To begin press the red button." Notice that word 'press' is a command, isn't it? It's telling us to do something.

An exclamation might look like this, "How well they played!" and "What a wonderful day it was!" They could sound a bit strange to our ear because they can sound a little bit old fashioned sometimes, like my first one there.

We might not say that if we were speaking now, but that's how an exclamation is formed is starting with 'how' or 'what', and we have an exclamation mark at the end and it contains a verb 'cause remember, these are all simple sentences made of one main clause.

And a main clause must contain at least one verb.

Questions can start in many different ways.

We could say, "Will you take part in the competition?" "Do you have any suggestions?" "How on earth did you survive?" "What do you want to achieve here?" Now some of you will have spotted that we can use the same word to start different types of sentence.

Can you see how command could start with 'do', "Do your work!" And so could a question, "Do you have any suggestions?" We've got an exclamation starting with 'what', "What a wonderful day it was!" And a question started the same way, "What do you want to achieve here?" And the same for 'how, that's in exclamations and questions as well.

We all can also see that three types of our simple sentence can end with an exclamation mark when they're showing a strong emotion.

A statement can, "It was so awkward!" A command can, "Do your work!", and an exclamation can, "How well they played!" An exclamation, of course, will always end with an exclamation mark, but a statement and a command will not.

So let's test that.

Which sentence here should definitely not end with an exclamation mark? Pause the video and decide.

Well done.

Hopefully, you spotted that it is C, which cannot end with an exclamation mark.

All of the others could because we can use exclamation marks for statements and commands if they're showing a strong emotion.

That's the author's choice whether they think a strong emotion is happening or not.

So A is a command, isn't it? And we could use a full stop there, "Put the ball down".

But if we think it's being said with lots of emotion, we can use the exclamation mark.

B is the exclamation.

So we'll always end with an exclamation mark.

And C is a statement, "I couldn't believe my eyes!", which the exclamation mark is telling us there's a strong emotion there, but it could be said with a full stop if we don't think it needs that strong emotion.

So it's the author's choice in those cases.

So we have to look carefully at sentences just to decide what type of simple sentence they are.

So let's look at these two.

"What are you doing" "What a good job you are doing" Hmm, they sound very similar and they both start with the same words.

But "What are you doing" is a question, isn't it? And "What a good job you are doing" is an exclamation.

So we should punctuate them correctly like this.

A question mark always for a question and an exclamation mark for an exclamation.

And remember, exclamations always start with 'what' or 'how', and they include a verb, 'you are doing' is our verbs, 'are' and 'doing'.

What about this pair? "Jun wondered if he should go" and "Should we go".

Now 'wondered' almost sometimes suggests a question to us.

The person is asking themself a question, but the sentence itself is not a question.

We are making a statement about what Jun is doing.

Jun is wondering if he should go.

So that's a statement, but "Should we go" is definitely, well done, a question.

So here we should punctuate them like this.

I don't think we're showing a strong emotion in that first one.

So we'll use a full stop for that statement.

And "Should we go?" is a question.

So it must have a question mark.

What about these two? Oh, they start with the same word again.

"Do you want to succeed".

"Do your very best work".

Hmm.

I bet you spotted that the first one is a question, "Do you want to succeed?" We're asking someone something.

But "Do your very best work" is a command.

We are telling someone to do their work.

So we should punctuate them like this.

Now, of course, the second one could be an exclamation mark if we think it's showing a strong emotion.

So remember an exclamation always starts with 'what' or 'how'.

Like this one starts with 'what', and a command always contains, what we call, an imperative verb or a bossy verb.

And in that case, it's 'do'.

So that's the bossy verb, the imperative verb, which is what's telling us to do something.

That's what makes it a command.

So let's see if you can tick a box in each row to show the sentence type for each of these sentences.

And they are simple sentences made of one main clause.

So look at the sentences.

Are they statements, questions, commands, or exclamations? You might want to go further and think about what punctuation would that give them? Pause the video and have a think.

Let's take a look.

So that first one, "how extraordinarily good it is to see you".

That is an exclamation.

So it would look like this with a capital H and an exclamation mark at the end.

The second one says, "how thoroughly have you checked this".

Now it starts with the same word 'how', but I can tell this one is a question.

So, of course, we'll need, well done, a question mark at the end and a capital letter to start.

And it's really important that when we're answering these questions, if we're asked to punctuate a sentence, we give it a capital letter and we use the right punctuation at the end.

The third one says, "she asked me to check thoroughly".

Hmm.

Now almost sounds like a question 'cause it contains 'asked', but it's not, is it? It's a statement.

We are just saying what she did.

So this I would punctuate with a capital and a full stop.

Why not an exclamation mark here? 'Cause it's not showing a strong emotion.

Really well done if you got those three.

Let's try another one.

So which of these simple sentences should end with a question mark? Remember, questions always end with a question mark, but we have to think carefully whether a question is actually being asked in a sentence.

Pause the video and decide.

That's some great thinking, good grammar knowledge.

Let's have a look.

So A, it says, "What a terrible mess you have made".

No, that one is not going to work.

That's not a question, it's an exclamation.

B says, "What happened next was shocking".

Again, that's not a question, that's a statement.

We're saying a comment, an opinion on what happened next.

So it could use a full stop there, it could use an exclamation mark if we think there's a strong emotion.

C says, "What would you suggest we do".

We are asking you a question here.

So this needs a question mark at the end.

And D says, "How on earth do you expect to succeed".

We're asking someone how they expect to succeed.

So we're asking a question.

So we need a question mark there.

Really well done there, great knowledge.

So Laura wants to know when the competition starts.

What question could she ask to find out? Here's one idea.

She could ask, "when does the competition start" But I can see a problem.

That's not correctly punctuated, is it? It should look like this.

Capital W, question mark.

"When does the competition start?" That's now a good question correctly punctuated.

What about this one? Sophia is shocked by the noise.

What exclamation could she say? Here are some ideas.

"This is a loud noise! Hmm.

It ends with an exclamation mark, but it doesn't start with 'what' or 'how'.

So that doesn't work as an exclamation.

What about this one? "What a loud noise!" Well, that starts with 'what', but what's missing is a verb.

So it's not yet a simple sentence.

So we need to write something like, "What a loud noise this is!" That verb 'is' is what makes it a simple sentence and therefore, an exclamation sentence.

So we need that verb and that 'what' or 'how' at the start of an exclamation.

Now you try.

Alex's dad wants to remind his children to remove their shoes.

Write a command he could place on a sign by the front door.

And then Alex wants to know why he should remove his shoes.

So write a question he could say.

Pause the video and have a think what could be your command and what could be your question? Have a try.

Well done, great thinking.

So for the command, maybe he could write, "Please take off your shoes." But it must have that capital letter and some closing punctuation.

I've gone for a full stop, but perhaps Alex's dad is very angry about this shoe situation.

So he might go for an exclamation mark that depends on you as the author choosing how much emotion is being shown.

For the question I might say, "Why do I need to take off my shoes?" But I must make sure it has that capital letter and that question mark.

Check yours does too.

Good job.

Now we can also rewrite a question as a statement usually or sometimes by changing the order of the words.

So if I take these words, "Will you finish your story by lunch?" It's a question.

I can make it a statement simply by changing the order.

I could say instead of 'will you', "You will finish your story by lunch." And I've changed the closing punctuation from a question mark to a full stop.

And we can do this in reverse as well.

Let's take a statement.

"She might be able to visit." I can switch some of those words to make a question.

I bet you've already thought of it.

You could say, well done, "Might she be able to visit?" With a question mark at the end.

So notice how we've used the exact same words, we've just switched the order of two of them in each case in order to change the sentence type.

So now you try.

Can you change this statement into a question? "You can join the committee this year", and change this question into a statement, "Tomorrow, shall we go and visit my neighbour?" And we've got that fronted adverbial word 'tomorrow' there, but it doesn't change the rest of the sentence.

So try and change the rest of the sentence into a statement.

Pause the video and have a try at these.

Well done.

Fantastic job.

So for "You can join the committee this year", we are going to just switch those first two words, aren't we? To "Can you join the committee this year?" But make sure you've got that question mark at the end.

And this time for the second one, we'll keep 'tomorrow' in the same place, but instead of 'shall we', it would be, well done, 'we shall'.

And I need to change that question mark to a full stop or perhaps an exclamation mark if you're really excited about this visit.

Fantastic work.

Well done.

So let's do our final task for this lesson.

I'm going to show you some sentences without closing punctuation at the end.

I want you to rewrite each sentence with the appropriate closing punctuation and say what type of simple sentence it is.

So here are the sentences.

You think carefully.

Are they statements, questions, commands, or exclamations? And which is the appropriate punctuation to use? And remember, we can use exclamation marks for statements and commands as well as exclamations if they're showing a strong emotion.

It's the author's choice as to whether that emotion is strong enough to need an exclamation mark.

So pause the video, add that punctuation, and decide what type of simple sentence we are looking at.

Have a go.

Brilliant.

Well done.

You've made a great effort there.

So here's what I did.

I've added in my closing punctuation.

I went for an exclamation mark, a question mark, a full stop, a full stop, a question mark, a full stop, a question mark, and a full stop.

So I think I've got an exclamation there.

'What' is my clue, and I've got that adverb 'are causing' that.

Then I've definitely got a question next.

This one's a statement.

We're saying that what she did was unacceptable.

That's just the truth from our perspective.

Now that could be with an exclamation, but we'll talk about that in a moment.

"He asked to see me immediately" is a statement again.

"Will you see me immediately?" is a question, isn't it? We're asking someone to see us.

"Come to my room immediately" is a command.

We are telling them to do it with that bossy verb, that imperative verb 'come'.

"And then do you believe me?" must be a question, and then "Do whatever is necessary", is another command.

That word 'do' is our imperative verb.

And like I said, if we think some of these are showing strong emotion, we could use exclamation marks instead.

So for instance, C and F and H, two commands and one statement there for C could have exclamation marks if we believe a strong emotion is being shown.

And again, that might depend on your own choice as the author.

Brilliant work, well done.

Let's summarise our learning in this lesson.

We learnt that a simple sentence is made up of one main clause and a main clause makes complete sense on its own and contains a verb.

We also learned that a compound sentence is made up of at least two main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction 'and', 'or', or 'but'.

We learned that there are four types of simple sentence, a question, a statement, a command, and an exclamation.

And we learned that we must look carefully at sentences to decide on their sentence type and on the correct punctuation for each one.

Really good work this lesson.

You've done an awful lot of work and I'm really pleased with how you've done.

I hope to see you again in the future lesson.

Goodbye.