VOA名师答疑2024--Types of Sentences

（单词翻译）

Types of Sentences

　　Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from a reader in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

　　Question

　　Dear teacher

　　I am from Burma. I read the following sentence from a book.

　　In Norway, there's an art museum for children's art.

　　The book mentioned it is a complex sentence. I am wondering if it's right or not. Please tell me.

　　Thank you! I wish you all the best!

　　Your loyal¹ reader

　　Kyaw Zin Oo

　　Answer

　　Thank you for writing, Kyaw. Before we answer your question, we need to review some terms and their meanings.

　　A clause² is a grammar unit organized around a verb phrase. A clause is made of two parts: a subject (the topic of a clause) and a verb (what is said about the topic).

　　For example, "we laughed" is a clause. "We" is the subject, and "laughed" is the verb.

　　"In the morning" is not a clause because it does not have a verb.

　　There are two main kinds of clauses³. Independent clauses are not dependent⁴ on any other clause. They are sentences on their own. "We laughed" is an independent clause.

　　A dependent clause depends on an independent clause. It cannot be a sentence on its own. "Before I went," for example, is a dependent clause because, although it has a subject and a verb, it requires additional⁵ information to be a full thought.

　　We can sort sentences into three groups by the clauses they have. A sentence must have at least one independent clause. The independent clause is a simple sentence. For example:

　　It snowed last night.

　　When a sentence has two or more independent clauses, it is a compound⁶ sentence. For example:

　　I went to the party, but he stayed home.

　　When a sentence has at least one independent clause as well as one or more dependent clauses, it is a complex sentence. For example:

　　I'll call you when I get home.

　　Now, to answer your question, Kyaw! Your example has only one clause. This means it is a simple sentence, not a complex sentence.

　　There are seven simple sentence patterns in English, but we can talk about those another day.

　　We hope this explanation has helped you, Kyaw.

　　Do you have a question about American English? Send us an email at [email protected].

　　And that's Ask a Teacher.

　　Words in This Story

　　mention –v. to briefly⁷ talk about a subject

　　unit –n. an amount of something; one thing

　　phrase –n. a group of words that form an idea but that do not contain a subject or verb

　　topic –n. a subject or idea

　　pattern—n. the repeated way something happens most of the time