Pauline says there is nothing relaxing about chopping wood,swatting mosquitoes, and cooking over a woodstove. Is it complex or compound or simple? And why?
Thank you for your reply. I understand almost everything by reading the page you linked. But I don't understand this sentence.
Pauline says there is nothing relaxing about chopping wood, swatting mosquitoes, and cooking over a woodstove. Do you mean it is the compound sentence? I thought it was a simple or complex sentence.
I thought Pauline says (that)there is nothing relaxing about chopping wood, swatting mosquitoes, and cooking over a woodstove. "That" is a relative pronoun, too. So it is a complex sentence.
Hi Undak
Look at the structure of the sentence again. It has just the one verb:
Ex: Pauline says (that) there is nothing relaxing about chopping wood, swatting mosquitoes, and cooking over a wood stove.Subject: Pauline
Verb: says
Verb's object: (that) there is nothing relaxing about ...
Simple = one verb
Compound and Complex = two or more verbs
But there are sentences which have 2 verbs and they are still simple.
For example: Paul watches tv and listens to music. How about this one?
You mean the compound sentence's subjects and verbs have to be equal?
Re: Pauline says (that) there is nothing relaxing about chopping wood, swatting mosquitoes, and cooking over a wood stove.
Hi Undak
It's considered a complex sentence. The reason being, omitted that is viewed as a subordinating conjunction.
Even simple sentences may have two words:
I went to the city and had an icecream. -- simple
'went' and 'had' are a compound verb in this simple sentence.
I went to the city but he did not. -- compound: two indep clauses + a coordinator
I went to the city after I ate my icecream. -- complex: main + one dep. clause.
Pauline says there is nothing relaxing about chopping wood,swatting mosquitoes, and cooking over a woodstove. -- complex
Pauline says -- main clause
that there... -- sub
sub clause:
there: grammatical subject
is: verb
nothing: subect complement
relaxing: present participle modifying nothing
about x;y, and z -- adverbial element; prep phrase
'and' is a conjunction joining the objects of the preposition (about) and not clauses