Sentence Structure and Punctuation

Basic English Sentence Structures

Combinations: One verb or one subject (no comma)

S V S and S V S V and V S V O and O S and S V O and O

Jack is drinking. Jack and Jill are drinking. Jack is eating and drinking. Jack drinks coffee and tea. Jack and Jill drink tea and coffee.

Subordination (One idea is stronger.)

Jack drinks coffee although Jill drinks tea. (without a comma)

Although Jack drinks coffee, Jill drinks tea. (with a comma)

Jack is drinking, and Jill is eating. (A comma [,] is needed here.)

Jack drinks coffee, but Jill drinks tea. (closest connection between ideas)

Jack drinks coffee; Jill drinks tea. (A semi-colon [;] is used here.)

Jack drinks coffee; however, Jill drinks tea. (with a sentence connector)

Jack drinks coffee. Jill drinks tea. (Use a period [.] to separate complete sentences.)

Jack drinks coffee. However, Jill drinks tea. (with a sentence connector)
Jack drinks coffee. Jill, however, drinks tea. (variation)

Note:

Do not use subordinators and coordinators to connect ideas in the same sentence:

Although Jack drinks coffee, but Jill drinks tea. Jack drinks coffee, but Jill drinks tea. Although Jack drinks coffee, Jill drinks tea.

(INCORRECT) (Okay) (Okay)

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