Subject, finite verb and complement
The trickle of water (subject) became (finite verb) a
deluge (complement).Phrase, subject, finite verb, direct object and phrase
Fielding the ball (phrase), he (subject) threw (finite verb)
it (direct object) at the wicket (phrase).List of main clauses
David was doing his homework, Mary was playing the
piano, Tony was cooking the dinner and Sue was feeding
the baby.Each of the above main clauses is separated by a comma and
the last one is preceded by ‘and’.
Joining main clauses joined by conjunctions (connectives)
Two or more main clauses can be joined together to make a
compound sentence. To do this you will need to use one of
the co-ordinating conjunctions‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’. Conjunc-
tions(connectives) are joining words used to link clauses,
phrases and words together.
Making use of co-ordinating conjunctions
Simple sentences are all main clauses because they contain
only one finite verb. If there is more than one finite verb in
your sentence, you will have more than one clause. Check
that you have used a conjunction to join them. In each of the
following sentences there are two main clauses which have
been linked with a co-ordinating conjunction. They are com-
pound sentences.
36 / IMPROVE YOUR PUNCTUATION & GRAMMAR