Grammar Unit: Compound Sentences, Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS), and semicolons

As far as grammar concepts go, I really like compound sentences because they are very easy to understand. You just take two indpendent clauses and "glue" them together with a comma and a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS).

First, let's review independent clauses:

An independent clause just has to have two things. A subject and a verb.

For example:

• He goes.
• You write.
• She smells.

Notice that each one of those also expresses a complete thought.

Simple sentences can also have other things, like prepositional phrases, adverbs, adjectives.

• He goes slowly. Slowly is an adverb. It modifies goes. This is still a simple sentence.
• You write on the board. On is a preposition; on the board is a prepositional phrase. It gives the location of the writing.
• She smells the scratch-and-sniff sticker. The scratch-and-sniff sticker is a noun, yes, but it is not the subject. The subject of a sentence is who or what is doing the action.

REMINDERS: An independent clause is also known as a simple sentence, which makes sense. That's easy to remember because "independent" pretty much means that something can stand alone, right? And that's what a simple sentence can do. Simple sentence = can stand alone = independent clause. 

This Khan Academy video explains simple sentences and compound sentences:

Compound sentences are easy. Just put two independent clauses together with a FANBOYS (coordinating conjunction) + comma in between them.

• I ate the chips, and I got fatter. Notice that there are two complete sentences. They're just stuck together. If you read both of them independently, they both make sense.
• I wanted queso, so we went out to eat. Two complete sentences stuck together with a FANBOYS and a comma. 

Do you see the formula? 

Complete sentence + comma + FANBOYS + complete sentence.

The ONLY variation is that you can use a semicolon instead of a FANBOYS + comma. Save this for a dramatic moment in your writing.

He lied to me; I left the room without saying a word.

Click here for a Khan Academy practice with simple and compound sentences.