Language: text structure and punctuation
Simple, compound and complex — in both directions
Rewrite a sentence as simple, compound or complex without changing what it means.
A transformation question does not ask you to improve a sentence. It asks you to rebuild it in a different shape and hand back exactly the same meaning — no more of it, no less of it, and nothing added that the original did not say. That last condition is where most marks are lost.
The three shapes
A simple sentence has one finite verb. A compound sentence has two clauses of equal rank, joined by and, but, or, so or yet. A complex sentence has a main clause and a subordinate one that cannot stand alone, joined by because, although, when, if, unless, that or a relative pronoun.
Going simpler means shrinking a clause to a phrase
Because he was ill becomes being ill. When we reached the station becomes on reaching the station. Although he is old becomes in spite of his age. The clause loses its finite verb and turns into a participle phrase or a preposition phrase.
Going more complex means growing a phrase into a clause
The man in the blue shirt becomes the man who is wearing the blue shirt. Too weak to walk becomes so weak that he cannot walk. You are giving the phrase back a subject and a finite verb of its own.
Watch what the joining word claims
But and although both signal contrast; because and so both signal cause, but they face opposite ways. "He tried hard, so he failed" says something the original never said. Read your new sentence as if you had never seen the old one.
Worked example
Change to a complex sentence: "On hearing the news, she ran home."
Find the phrase doing the work of a clause: on hearing the news.
It has a verb form but no subject and no tense, which is exactly what a phrase is.
Try it together
Let us transform one sentence three ways.
The sentence is: He was very ill, so he could not attend the wedding. Write each whole sentence, and keep the meaning exactly as it is.
1.First, make it complex, beginning with "Because". Write the whole sentence.
Have a go
Which sentence is the compound form of "Although it was raining, we went out"?
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.