Sentences in North American academic English have at least one subject and at least one verb (as in "Peacocks are loud"). A compound sentence is a type of sentence with multiple subjects combined with one of the following conjunctions: "for", "and", "nor", "but", "yet", "or", and "so". For example: "Eagles are usually quiet, but peacocks are always loud" is a compound sentence that consists of two complete ideas, each containing at least one subject ("eagles" and "peacocks") joined by the conjunction "but".
Here are some more examples:
- Rain falls for weeks every November in Victoria, and the children splash through the puddles on the ground.
- All eagles fly, and many species nest in very tall trees.
Each of these two sentences are examples of compound sentences since they each have an additional subject. In other words, they each can be divided into two separate, simple sentences:
- Every November rain falls for weeks in Victoria. The children splash through the puddles on the ground.
- All eagles fly. Many species nest in very tall trees.
So in this sense, a compound sentence combines two complete ideas in which there are at least two things happening to create one sentence instead of two or more simple sentences. Missing a conjunction in this sentence type can result in comma splices and run-on sentences. To learn about simple sentences, see: What is a Simple Sentence?. To learn more about these sentence errors and the basic elements of a sentence, see Sentences and Style.
