Sentence Types question

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whitenig

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Hello,

I'm studying sentence types (simple, complex, compund and compound-complex).

I did some online test and my results are correct 22/25. I don't know why have I mistaken in for those three sentences:

"He got up, walked over to the window, and jumped out." - I wrote that it is compound but it says it is simple. Why is it simple when there are three independent sentences ("He got up", "he walked over to the window" and "he jumped out")? Is the test check wrong or what am I mistaking here?

I'll post the other 2 sentences later.
 

Barb_D

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Welcome to Using English.

The sentence does not repeat the word "he." It does NOT say "he walked" or "he jumped," so it's not linking independent clauses.

Some people will call this a compound sentence. I call it a simple sentence with a compound predicate.
 
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PaulMatthews

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Hello,

I'm studying sentence types (simple, complex, compound and compound-complex).

I did some online test and my results are 22/25. I don't know why have I mistaken three sentences:

"He got up, walked over to the window, and jumped out." - I wrote that it is compound, but it says it is simple. Why is it simple when there are three independent sentences ("He got up", "he walked over to the window" and "he jumped out")? Is the test check wrong or what am I mistaking here?

I'll post the other 2 sentences later.

It's because there are not three main clauses in your example:

(1) He [got up, walked over to the window, and jumped out]. (three verb phrases, simple sentence)

(2) [He got up and he walked over to the window, and he jumped out]. (three main clauses, compound sentence)


I agree with Barb D. Your example (1), is just a coordination of three verb phrases, so it's a simple sentence.

Your example can of course be expanded into a logically equivalent coordination of three main clauses as in (2), which would then be a compound sentence.
 
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