A Simple Sentence is a sentence that contains but one proposition.

Some simple sentences are longer and more complex, using the term in its ordinary sense, than some complex sentences. Show that the longer of the following examples is a simple sentence and that the other is complex: (1) Long ago during the reign of good King Henry the Second, a famous outlaw named Robin Hood dwelt with his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest near Nottingham Town; (2) Robin Hood, who was an outlaw, dwelt in Sherwood Forest.

Exercise 90. Composition

Change the simple sentences in Exercise 88 to complex ones and the complex ones to simple.

Exercise 91. Composition

Write sentences containing adjective clauses that tell what particular person and what particular place you are talking about.

Write sentences containing adverbial clauses that tell the (1) time, (2) the place, (3) the manner, (4) the cause, (5) the purpose of an act. Be sure you know what cause and purpose mean. What kind of sentences have you written?

Exercise 92

Classify the following sentences as simple or complex. Select the essential elements and describe their adjuncts as wholes. Analyze the groups of words only just enough to see whether they are phrases or clauses.

Models Fob Describing Adjuncts

With all speed the enraged soldiers destroyed the walls that surrounded the palace.

The word enraged shows the condition of the soldiers. It is therefore added to the word soldiers. The word soldiers is a noun, therefore the word enraged is an adjective.

The words with all speed show the manner of destroying; they are therefore added to the word destroyed. The word destroyed is a verb; they are therefore an adverbial adjunct. They do not consist of a subject and a predicate; therefore they are a phrase.

The words, that surrounded the palace, show what walls are meant; they are therefore added to the word walls. The word walls is a noun; they are therefore an adjective adjunct. They consist of a subject and predicate; they are therefore a clause.

1. The storks assembled to fly away to warmer lands.

2. A crow that was very thirsty found a pitcher with a little water in it.

3. There groups of merry children played.

4. For interior decoration the beautiful soft white peculiar to white lead is especially pleasing.

5. Amid the boughs was a nightingale, which sang very sweetly.

6. The men who paint the glories of war are the stay-at-homes.

7. After a man has seen war, he paints its horrors.

8. At length came a tall mountaineer, who refused to salute the king.

9. In the middle of the garden a long time ago, there stood a rose tree full of the most beautiful roses.

10. When the sun was sinking, the lonely child went into the woods to pick flowers.

11. The ship which carried the treasure was driven by the winds to a desert island.

12. From all parts of the world came travelers to the city of the emperor.

13. There is a right time for cutting and shocking corn.

14. It should be cut just as the ears begin to glaze.

15. The sweet nutritious juices in stalks and blades, which make the fodder so valuable, are thus preserved.

16. When cutting is delayed, the stalks and leaves become a tasteless woody fiber.

17. Her elder sisters mistreated her because she was so beautiful.

18. A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

19. She seemed unwilling to try.

20. The woods against a stormy sky Their giant branches tossed.

21. In September, 1780, Andre was sent by Clinton up the Hudson to make arrangements with Arnold.

22. The greatest defect in our flower growing is the stinginess of it.