Kind of sentence.

[chourouk]

Hi everybody
I need your help please ..

What is the kind of these sentences? "simple, compound or complex"
and why?...

1- In spite of legislation and in spite of goodwill, equality between man and woman remains an ideal.

2- The social sciences are used to identify and investigate the attitude giving rise to discrimination.

3- The game should be simple, nice and easy to use or manipulate.

4- He must be sympathetic in understanding his students' feelings and tactful in presenting or discussing those cultural similaries or differences that may exist between the students' native culture and that of English-speaking.

 

[birdeen's call]

Hi, Chou.

What do you think? Here is something that may help you find the correct answers. Do you know what independent and dependent clauses are?

 

[chourouk]

Hi, Chou.

What do you think? Here is something that may help you find the correct answers. Do you know what independent and dependent clauses are?

Hi Milena.
Thank you for the link :up:

But I want to know the kind of the previous sentences .. they are a bit complicated, are not?

Would you help me to determine its kind, and explain why? ;-)

 

[birdeen's call]

They are a bit complicated, that's true.

Let's take the first sentence:

In spite of legislation and in spite of goodwill, equality between man and woman remains an ideal.

I've bolded the main verb. There is only one main verb, so there can be only one clause. This means it can't be a complex sentence and it cannot be a compound sentence. It must be a simple sentence.

The second sentence:

The social sciences are used to identify and investigate the attitude giving rise to discrimination.

I don't know the name for what I have bolded, but it works like a main verb. Again, there is only one.

The third sentence:

The game should be simple, nice and easy to use or manipulate.

Again, only one main verb.

The fourth sentence:

He must be sympathetic in understanding his students' feelings and tactful in presenting or discussing those cultural similaries or differences that may exist between the students' native culture and that of English-speaking.

The colors and bolded words should give you a clue. What do you think now?

 

[engee30]

chourouk, where did you get those sentences from?

The social sciences are used to identify...
That should be:
The social sciences are used to identyfying and investigating...
or
The social sciences used to identify and investigate...

 

[birdeen's call]

chourouk, where did you get those sentences from?

The social sciences are used to identify...
That should be:
The social sciences are used to identyfying and investigating...
or
The social sciences used to identify and investigate...

No, engee. The original sentence is fine. "Used" is simply the passive form of "use" there.

 

[Barb_D]

chourouk, where did you get those sentences from?

The social sciences are used to identify...
That should be:
The social sciences are used to identyfying and investigating...
or
The social sciences used to identify and investigate...

??
We use the social sciences to identify... they are used to identify. Social sciences are used to identify.

Your first sentence is grammatically wrong and the second suggests they no longer can identify.

 

[birdeen's call]

I'd say engee's first sentence is grammatically correct but doesn't make sense.

 

[engee30]

Sorry. I did see some other word than sciences in there.

 

[chourouk]

Thank you Milena.

The game should be simple, nice and easy to use or manipulate.

Again, only one main verb.

"or" in this sentence is just a coordinator.... so, It's not a compound sentence! is not?

He must be sympathetic in understanding his students' feelings and tactful in presenting or discussing those cultural similaries or differences that may exist between the students' native culture and that of English-speaking.

this sentence is already complex .. but it contains '' connectors": and - or!!
How we can determine its elements exactly?

 

[chourouk]

chourouk, where did you get those sentences from?

The social sciences are used to identify...
That should be:
The social sciences are used to identyfying and investigating...
or
The social sciences used to identify and investigate...

Hi engee.

I've found them in grammar book as an exersice without answer..!

 

[engee30]

Hi engee.

I've found them in grammar book as an exersice without answer..!

Yes. They're all fine. Forget my post in which I was asking for the source of the sentences.

 

[birdeen's call]

Yes I agree with you ,but I wondered about : "In spite of" !

I thought this was the problem. In spite of legislation and in spite of goodwill doesn't have a verb, so it's not a clause!

"or" in this sentence is just a coordinator.... so, It's not a compound sentence! is not?

The game should be simple, nice and easy to use or manipulate.

It's not a compound sentence. Notice that instead of "easy to use or manipulate", I could write "easy to use or to manipulate".

"To use" and "to manipulate" are not finite verbs, so they don't make finite clauses. Only finite clauses can make a sentence compound or complex.

this sentence is already complex .. but it contains '' connectors": and - or!!
How we can determine its elements exactly?

Yes, this sentence is complex. Sometimes, "connectors" don't introduce finite clauses (and we only want to look ate finite clauses when we're trying to determine whether a sentence is simple, complex or compound).

Let's take a simple example:

I have a dog and a cat.

This is a simple sentence. "And" links "a dog" and "a cat". Neither "a dog" nor "a cat" is a finite clause. They are nouns, so they don't matter to us now. We only look at finite clauses.

Do you understand it better now?

 

[chourouk]

I thought this was the problem. In spite of legislation and in spite of goodwill doesn't have a verb, so it's not a clause!
The game should be simple, nice and easy to use or manipulate.

It's not a compound sentence. Notice that instead of "easy to use or manipulate", I could write "easy to use or to manipulate".

"To use" and "to manipulate" are not finite verbs, so they don't make finite clauses. Only finite clauses can make a sentence compound or complex.
Yes, this sentence is complex. Sometimes, "connectors" don't introduce finite clauses (and we only want to look ate finite clauses when we're trying to determine whether a sentence is simple, complex or compound).

Let's take a simple example:

I have a dog and a cat.

This is a simple sentence. "And" links "a dog" and "a cat". Neither "a dog" nor "a cat" is a finite clause. They are nouns, so they don't matter to us now. We only look at finite clauses.

Do you understand it better now?

Thank you so much dear Milena.

Yes, I understood it well :-D