Harvey's Elementary Grammar and Composition · Lesson 47 · Part 1: Part I: The elementary course

47. Complex sentences

Goal: Your child knows that a complex sentence has a clause as one of its parts, and can tell the principal clause from the subordinate one.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • Paper and a pencil (or a slate)

What's in the book

Lesson 47 defines complex sentences, principal and subordinate clauses and five classes of clauses, with models for complete analysis and sentences to analyze. It continues for several pages.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Review

    Ask: What is a compound sentence? Give one.

  2. Clause inside a sentence

    SayI know where gold is found.

    Ask: What do I know? "Where gold is found." That clause works as the object.

    Read:

    A Complex Sentence is one, some element of which contains a subject and a predicate.

  3. Principal and subordinate

    Read:

    A Principal Clause is one which makes complete sense when separated from the rest of the sentence.

    A Subordinate Clause is one which does not make complete sense when separated from the rest of the sentence.

  4. Look at the models

    The book gives models like these:

    That he is very sick, is evident.

    He builds a palace of ice where the torrents fall.

    Ask which clause can stand alone in each.

  5. Analyze

    Find the principal and subordinate clauses:

    The boy that you saw, is my younger brother.

    I would pay you if I had the money.

    That he will succeed, is uncertain.

  6. Check together

    Check with the answers.

  7. Use it today

    Find one complex sentence in today's reading. Which part could stand alone?

Answers to the book's problems

Subordinate clauses: He that flattereth: that flattereth. The boy that you saw: that you saw. ...when he first saw a lion. ...where pupils make so much noise. ...if I had the money. That he will succeed (the subject clause; the book's remark says a sentence like this need not be split into principal and subordinate clauses). The principal clause is the rest of each sentence.

Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.

@teddyrookbook GitHub