Complex Sentence

COMPLEX SENTENCE

A complex sentence has an Independent Clause joined by one or more the Dependent Clauses.
A complex sentence always has a subordinator such as; because, since, after, although, when or relative pronoun such as; that, who, which.

Examples;

A. When he handed in his homework, he forgot to give the teacher the last page.

B. The teacher returned the homework after he noticed the error.

C. The students are studying because they have a test tomorrow.

D. After they finished studying, Juan and Maria went to the movies.

E. Juan and Maria went to the movies after they finished studying.

Note; Subjects are in yellow, the verbs are in green and the subordinators and their commas (when required) are in red.

When a complex sentence begins with a subordinator such as sentence A and D, a comma is required at the end of the Depemdent Clause.

When the Independent Clause begins the sentence with subordinators in the middle as in sentences B, C and E, no comma required.

Note the sentences D and E are the same except sentence D begins with the Dependent Clause which is followed by a comma, and sentence E begins with Independent Clause which contains no comma.