wunder beta

🧩 The thought that can stand alone

A sentence is how many complete thoughts you hired. Learn simple, compound, and complex — and the hanger-on that cannot walk out alone.

5
lessons
~20 min
to learn
🗣️ Language
subject
Ages 6–12
level
Start the course →

What you’ll learn

  1. The thought that can leave the roomTell an independent clause from a dependent clause using the walk-out test: subject, verb, and a complete thought.They waited is a sentence. Because I missed the bus is not. Purdue's marker words steal the finish. Glue the hanger to a thought that can stand.
  2. One complete thoughtRecognise a simple sentence as one independent clause, including lines with compound subjects or verbs.Purdue: one independent, no dependent. Towson: Maya and Luis ran is still simple. Length is luggage. Count clauses, not nouns.
  3. Two thoughts, one hingeBuild a compound sentence with a legal hinge, and fix comma splices and fused sentences.Two standing thoughts. Comma plus FANBOYS, semicolon, or semicolon plus however. A comma alone is a splice. Purdue lists four legal doors.
  4. The hanger-onBuild a complex sentence with a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun, and place the comma when the dependent clause comes first.One standing thought plus a hanger. Because is tighter than so. Towson's door: hanger first, comma. Who, which, and that hang too.
  5. Hire the right sentenceChoose among simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to signal how ideas relate.Common Core L.7.1.b is a hiring decision. Equals get a hinge. Reasons get a hanger. Tonight, steal three sentences and count the chairs.

Questions this course answers

Purdue and UNC both say an independent clause must have which three things?

UNC: subject, predicate, complete thought. Purdue: a group of words with a subject and verb that expresses a complete thought. That group is already a sentence.

In your own words, why is Because I missed the bus not a sentence even though it has a subject and a verb?

Purdue: a dependent clause has a subject and a verb but does not express a complete thought. The marker because stole the finish. UNC: Because their car was in the shop… What did they do?

Purdue's definition, one word.

Purdue: a simple sentence has one independent clause and no dependent clauses. Extra luggage is allowed. A second clause is not.

Maya and Luis ran to the bus. Why is this still a simple sentence?

Towson: do not treat compound subjects or verbs as a second clause. One subject-verb pair that can stand, and no hanger: simple.

How many coordinating conjunctions does OpenStax list in the FANBOYS mnemonic?

Seven: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. OpenStax's mnemonic is fanboys. Purdue uses the same seven as the coordinating conjunctions that can join independent clauses.

Put Purdue's four legal fixes for a comma splice in the order this course used them

Period, semicolon, comma plus coordinating conjunction, or insert a dependent marker. Purdue walks the splice I like this class, it is very interesting through those four doors.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • Purdue OWL, Sentence Types, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/sentence_variety/sentence_types.html
  • Purdue OWL, Identifying Independent and Dependent Clauses, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/punctuation/independent_and_dependent_clauses/index.html
  • Towson University Online Writing Support, Kinds of Sentences and Their Punctuation, https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/sentences.htm
  • Towson University Online Writing Support, Conjunctions, https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/conjunctions.htm
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center, Fragments and Run-ons, https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/fragments-and-run-ons/
  • OpenStax, Writing Guide with Handbook, Handbook § Clear and Effective Sentences (LibreTexts 21.10), https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Composition/Introductory_Composition/About_Writing_Guide_with_Handbook_-_A_textbook_for_English_Composition_(OpenStax)/21%3A_Handbook/21.10%3A_Clear_and_Effective_Sentences
  • Common Core State Standards Initiative, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.1.a–b, https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/7/
  • Department for Education (England), National curriculum in England: English programmes of study — subordination, co-ordination, and extending sentences with more than one clause, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

Related Language courses

✍️Where commas actually belong🔗The hinge, the drumroll, the break📖The book already knows the way📗The title page is waiting inside🪟The window was broken🐢The finish line is not the lesson🧩Breaking Words into Sounds📋Colons and Semicolons in Lists

Wunder is a personalized learn-anything platform — tell it any topic and it builds a beautiful, fact-checked course in minutes, with narration, a knowledge check, and a college-style University track.

Browse more Language courses · All topics · Home

© 2026 Wunder Learning LLC · Terms & Privacy