One of the following sentences contains an independent clause and a dependent clause, which makes it a
complex sentence. Which is the complex sentence?
A. I came home; I saw an envelope in the mailbox.
B. After the rain ended, the sky became blue.
C. Jenny was the largest elephant in the circus.
D. I hesitated a moment, but her smile gave me courage
B is the answer to this question because it does have a independent clause and dependent clause.
I will give some information about independent clauses, dependent clauses, and complex sentences below to help you.
Independent Clause:
It is a clause that stands by itself. It has a subject and predicate. With those, it should make sense by itself. Can be joined with semicolons and commas with coordinating conjunction following.
Dependent Clause:
Is a clause that adds to the independent clause with more information. However, it can't stand alone in sentences. They either modify the independent clause, or they are one of the parts of a sentence. Dependent clauses are also subordinate clauses.
Complex Sentence:
Are based on number and kind of clauses. In order to have a complex sentence, it needs to have at least on independent clause, and at least one dependent clause. It can have more dependent clauses in the sentences as well. However, the dependent clause can't stand alone, so there has to be a independent clause in the sentence. If there are two or more independent clauses or one or more dependent clauses, it becomes a compound-complex sentence.
All of the information above is based on information from Wikipedia.
I hope all of this will help you! :)
The complex sentence is D. "I hesitated a moment, but her smile gave me courage." This sentence has an independent clause ("I hesitated a moment") and a dependent clause ("but her smile gave me courage").
The complex sentence is D. "I hesitated a moment, but her smile gave me courage."
To determine the complex sentence, we need to identify which sentence contains both an independent clause and a dependent clause.
Independent clauses are complete sentences on their own and can stand alone as separate sentences. Dependent clauses, on the other hand, are not complete sentences and rely on the independent clause to make sense.
Looking at the options:
A. "I came home; I saw an envelope in the mailbox." - This sentence contains two independent clauses connected by a semicolon (;), making it a compound sentence but not a complex sentence.
B. "After the rain ended, the sky became blue." - This sentence contains an introductory dependent clause "After the rain ended" followed by an independent clause "the sky became blue." While it is a complex sentence, it is not one of the options provided.
C. "Jenny was the largest elephant in the circus." - This sentence is a simple sentence and does not contain a dependent clause.
D. "I hesitated a moment, but her smile gave me courage." - In this sentence, we have an independent clause "I hesitated a moment" followed by a coordinating conjunction "but" and another independent clause "her smile gave me courage." This combination of an independent clause and a dependent clause makes it a complex sentence.
Therefore, the complex sentence is option D.