Compund Sentence

COMPOUND SENTENCE

A compound sentence contains two Independent Clauses joined by a coordinator. The coordinators are as follows: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. (Helpful hint: The first letter of each of the coordinators spells FANBOYS.) Except for very short sentences, coordinators are always preceded by a comma.

Examples;

A. I tried to Speak Chinese, and my friend tried to speak English.
B. Alejandro played football, so Maria went shopping.
C. Alejandro played football, for Maria went shopping.

Note; Subjects are in yellow, the verbs are in green, and the coordinators and the commas that precede them are in red.

The above three sentences are compound sentences. Each sentence contains two Independent Clauses, and they are joined by a coordinator with a comma preceding it. 

Note how the conscious use of coordinators can change the relationship between the clauses. Sentences B and C, for example, are identical except for the coordinators.

In sentence B which action occurred first? Obviously, ''Alejandro played football'' and as consequences, ''Maria went shopping.''

In sentence C, ''Maria went shopping.'' first. ''Alejandro played football,'' because, possibly, he didn't have anything else to do, FOR or  BECAUSE ''Maria went shopping.''