| A | B |
|---|
| Independent (main) clause | Has a subject and a predicate and expresses a complete thought; is the only type of clause that can stand alone as a sentence; can contain a compound subject and/or predicate |
| Subordinate (dependent) clause | Does not express a complete thought and can NOT stand alone (begins with a subordinating conjunction: A WHITE BUS) |
| Compound sentence | Has two or more independent clauses but no subordinate clauses; joined by a comma and FANBOYS or semicolon |
| Complex sentence | Has one independent clause and at least one subordinate clause |
| Compound-complex sentence | Has two or more independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause |
| fragment | does NOT express a complete thought; it may be missing a subject, predicate, or both |
| run-on | two or more sentences incorrectly written as one sentence with no punctuation separating them; to correct a run-on you can separate the two complete sentences with a semi-colon OR use a period and capital letter OR add a comma and FANBOYS. |
| comma splice | a type of run-on where two complete sentences are incorrectly separated by just a comma. To correct it, either replace the comma with a semi-colon OR add a FANBOYS before the comma OR replace the comma with a period and capitalize the next word. |
| simple sentence | a group of words that has a subject, predicate, and expresses one complete thought |
| clause | a group of related words that has a subject and a predicate (verb) |
