The Anatomy of the Complex Sentence: History, Grammar, and 20 Funny Facts

If you want to elevate your writing from choppy, simple statements to smooth, professional prose, you need to understand the mechanics of sentence combining. In a previous post, we discussed the compound sentence. Today, we are diving deep into the elegant, sometimes frustrating, and always useful complex sentence.

What is a Complex Sentence?

In English grammar, a complex sentence is a sentence that consists of one Principal (or Main) clause and at least one Subordinate (or Dependent) clause,.

Unlike a compound sentence—which links two independent clauses of equal grammatical rank—a complex sentence links ideas of unequal rank. The Principal clause contains a subject and a verb and makes complete sense on its own, meaning it could stand alone as a separate sentence,. The Subordinate clause, however, depends completely on the Principal clause to make full sense,.

How are they joined? Subordinate clauses are tethered to the main clause by subordinating conjunctions. Common examples include because, when, if, that, although, unless, since, before, and as soon as,,.

Subordinate clauses do the heavy lifting in a complex sentence and fall into three distinct categories,:

• Noun Clauses: These do the work of a noun, often acting as the subject or object of a verb (e.g., I know that he is innocent.),.

• Adjective Clauses (Relative Clauses): These act as adjectives to qualify or describe a noun or pronoun (e.g., This is the girl who secured first position.),.

• Adverb Clauses: These act as adverbs to modify verbs, showing time, place, reason, condition, or contrast (e.g., He is so poor that he cannot buy his books.),.

  
  

A Brief History of Complex Sentences

The way we use complex sentences today is the result of centuries of linguistic evolution. Languages are much like living creatures; they are not always neat and logical, and they grow and change over time.

Modern English evolved from Old English (Anglo-Saxon), which featured different word orders, heavier reliance on subjunctives, and verbal inflections that have since disappeared,,. As English transitioned through the Middle and Early Modern periods, the ways speakers connected clauses evolved. For instance, corpus linguistics shows that the use of the complementizer that to introduce a dependent clause has fluctuated dramatically over time, often being omitted in casual or less cognitively complex speech, but retained in formal writing,.

Our strict rules surrounding how to punctuate and structure these clauses largely stem from the 18th century. During the Enlightenment, writers decided to "scientifically" examine the English language. Instead of looking at what English speakers actually did naturally, these scholars focused on what they thought English ought to do. They based many of their grammatical rules on Latin and Greek, which were considered perfect models of language at the time. This rise of prescriptive grammar permanently shaped how complex sentences were taught in schools, leading to strict rules about subordination, modifiers, and clause placement that we still study today,.

The following 20 funny facts about complex sentences draw on linguistic humour!

20 Funny Facts About Complex Sentences

1.     They are the leading cause of breathlessness. If you read a 19th-century novel out loud, a single complex sentence can easily deprive you of oxygen.

2.     They are the natural habitat of the misplaced modifier. It is incredibly easy to accidentally write: "After rotting in the cellar for weeks, my brother brought up the apples" (meaning your brother was rotting, not the apples).

3.     A complex sentence is just a simple sentence that went to grad school. It learned a few big words, attached some dependent clauses, and now thinks it's better than everyone else.

4.     Subordinating conjunctions are the duct tape of the English language. Words like although and because awkwardly stick wildly different thoughts together.

5.     They fuel the legal profession. Without complex sentences filled with endless conditional clauses, lawyer contracts would make sense to the average person, and the industry would collapse.

6.     They are the ultimate tool for passive-aggressive insults. "Although you tried your absolute best, the project was a disaster" sounds so much nicer than just saying the project failed.

7.     The longest sentence in literature is a complex beast. In Jonathan Coe’s The Rotters' Club, there is a sentence that stretches for 13,955 words.

8.     They cause 90% of comma anxiety. Figuring out whether a dependent clause needs a comma before the main clause keeps writers awake at night.

9.     Students use them to magically hit word counts. Why write "I went home" when you can write "Due to the fact that the hour was growing late, I proceeded to my residence"?

10. "Because I said so" is the most famous dependent clause in history. Every parent has used this subordinate clause as a complete sentence, completely violating the rules of grammar.

11. They allow for linguistic "Inception." Thanks to recursive syntax, you can theoretically put an adjective clause inside a noun clause inside an adverb clause, forever.

12. In German, complex sentences build suspense. Because the verb is often pushed to the very end of a subordinate clause, you don't actually know what happened until the speaker stops talking.

13. They are the arch-nemesis of Twitter. The 280-character limit was explicitly designed to destroy the complex sentence.

14. 18th-century grammarians loved them. Scholars forced Latin rules onto English just to make complex sentences look more mathematically "perfect" and elite.

15. A compound-complex sentence is just a complex sentence showing off. It has at least two independent clauses and one dependent clause, making it the overachiever of syntax.

16. They prove English is illogical. We have strict rules for them, yet native speakers constantly break those rules in casual conversation without even realizing it.

17. They are the enemy of the modern attention span. On the internet, if a sentence has more than two clauses, 80% of readers have already clicked away.

18. They birthed the "TL;DR" acronym. "Too Long; Didn't Read" was invented specifically because people abuse complex sentences on forums.

19. If a simple sentence is a bicycle, a complex sentence is a unicycle juggling flaming torches. It requires perfect balance to avoid a grammatical crash.

20. Every time you write a comma splice, a complex sentence sheds a tear. (And an English teacher gets a headache).

What is recursive syntax in complex sentences?

Recursive syntax in complex sentences refers to the grammatical ability to embed or nest one clause inside another clause. As mentioned in our previous conversation regarding the "linguistic 'Inception'" joke, recursion means that you can theoretically place an adjective clause inside a noun clause, which is inside an adverb clause, and so on, infinitely.

In formal grammatical terms, this occurs when a subordinate clause has another subordinate clause within it or dependent on it. Because subordinate clauses do the work of a single part of speech—such as acting as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb—they can easily become the building blocks of other subordinate clauses.

Here are three clear examples of how this recursive embedding works in practice:

1. An Adjective Clause inside a Noun Clause

• Sentence: I think that he destroyed the letter which you sent there.

• How it works: The principal (main) clause is "I think". The object of "think" is the noun clause "that he destroyed the letter". Embedded directly inside that noun clause is the adjective clause "which you sent there," which qualifies the word "letter".

2. An Adverb Clause inside a Noun Clause

• Sentence: He replied that he worked whenever he liked.

• How it works: The principal clause is "He replied". Its object is the noun clause "that he worked". Embedded within that noun clause is the adverb clause "whenever he liked," which modifies the verb "worked".

3. Deep Nesting (Four Subordinate Clauses)

• Sentence: I knew a man who believed that, if a man were permitted to make the ballads, he need not care who made the laws of a nation.

• How it works: This complex sentence contains a chain of four interacting subordinate clauses:

  • The main clause is "I knew a man".

  • Attached to "man" is an adjective clause: "who believed...".

  • Attached to "believed" is a noun clause acting as its object: "that he need not care".

  • Attached to "care" is another noun clause acting as its object: "who made the laws of a nation".

  • Finally, attached to "need not care" is an adverb clause of condition: "if a man were permitted to make the ballads".

While this recursive property allows English to express incredibly intricate and layered thoughts, sentences with too many nested clauses can become top-heavy or difficult for a listener to follow, which is why writers must balance this structural complexity with clarity.

Can you explain the grammar of compound-complex sentences?

A compound-complex sentence (sometimes referred to in certain grammar traditions as a "mixed sentence") is exactly what its name suggests: a blend of a compound sentence and a complex sentence.

To build one, you need a minimum of three clauses: at least two independent (main) clauses and at least one dependent (subordinate) clause.

Here is how the grammatical mechanics work:

• The Independent Clauses: Just like in a standard compound sentence, the independent clauses contain a subject and a verb and can stand alone as complete thoughts. They are typically linked together using a coordinating conjunction (such as and, but, or, so) or a semicolon.

• The Dependent Clause(s): Just like in a standard complex sentence, the dependent clause relies on the rest of the sentence to make full sense. It is attached using a subordinating conjunction (such as because, although, if, when, until) or a relative pronoun (such as who, which, that).

Examples and Explanations

Here are a few examples breaking down the anatomy of compound-complex sentences:

1. "Although the forecast predicted rain, the fair was held as planned, and attendance was good."

• Dependent Clause: Although the forecast predicted rain (introduced by the subordinating conjunction "although" and modifying the rest of the sentence).

• Independent Clause 1: the fair was held as planned

• Independent Clause 2: attendance was good (linked to the first main clause by the coordinating conjunction "and").

2. "Because the traffic was so heavy, the drive took longer than we expected, and we almost missed the meeting."

• Dependent Clause: Because the traffic was so heavy

• Independent Clause 1: the drive took longer than we expected

• Independent Clause 2: we almost missed the meeting (linked by "and").

3. "Chris wanted to drive to work, but she couldn’t until her car was repaired."

• Independent Clause 1: Chris wanted to drive to work

• Independent Clause 2: she couldn't (linked by the coordinating conjunction "but").

• Dependent Clause: until her car was repaired (introduced by the subordinating conjunction "until").

4. "The directions she gave me were incomplete, but I found her house anyway."

• Independent Clause 1: The directions were incomplete

• Dependent Clause: [that] she gave me (a relative clause embedded inside the first independent clause to modify "directions", with the relative pronoun "that" omitted).

• Independent Clause 2: I found her house anyway (linked by "but").

By stringing these phrases and clauses together, you can express highly detailed and sophisticated thoughts, linking multiple main ideas while also providing conditions, reasons, or exceptions within the same sentence.