Question

Are all the substatements in the following statement correct?

A complex sentence has one independent clause (sentence) and at least one dependant clause.
A dependent clause has a subject and a verb, but is not a complete thought, so it cannot stand alone.
These two clauses are joined by a marker word, like: after, although, as, as if, because, before, even if, even though, if, in order to, since, though, unless, until, whatever, when, whenever, whether, and while.
An example is: "He went to the party after he did his chores."
True

False

Answer 1

False.

Most of the points are basically right, but there are important exceptions and omissions:

- A complex sentence does normally have one independent clause and at least one dependent (subordinate) clause — correct.
- It is true that many dependent clauses contain a subject and a verb and cannot stand alone, but not always: non‑finite subordinate clauses (infinitive clauses, -ing or -ed participial clauses) may lack an expressed subject or a finite verb yet are still dependent (e.g., "To win was his goal," "Walking down the street, he whistled").
- Dependent clauses are introduced by subordinating words, but the given list is not exhaustive. Subordinate clauses can also begin with relative pronouns and complementizers such as who, which, that, whom, whose, where, etc.
- The example "He went to the party after he did his chores." is a correct example of a complex sentence.

A corrected short summary: A complex sentence contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. Dependent clauses are typically introduced by subordinating conjunctions or relative/complement words (e.g., after, because, that, who, which) and often—but not always—contain a subject and a (finite) verb.