New York State Elementary Test Prep- ELA 4- 4th Grade

compound sentences banner

Do you want to make your writing more interesting?

You can do this by combining 2 or more shorter sentences into one longer, more interesting sentence.
A conjunction is a word you can use to combine the sentences.	Examples of conjunctions are: and, or, but, so

Suppose you wrote these
sentences in your story...

Melanie forgot her lunch.
She called her mother.

You could combine these
sentences with a conjunction.

Melanie forgot her lunch, so
she called her mother.

lunchbox

Another example might look
like this...

Pam bought 3 pencils. She
lost 2 of them.

You could combine these
sentences with a conjunction.

Pam bought 3 pencils, but
she lost 2 of them.

Maybe you wrote...

Bobby has a football. He
threw it across the yard.

You could combine these
sentences with a conjunction.

      Bobby has a football, and
     he threw it across the
     yard.

boy with football

       Remember to always put a
      comma before the
      conjunction in every
      compound sentence.

You can even combine 3 short sentences to make your
writing sound smoother.

For example:

For lunch I ate a sandwich. I ate potato chips. I ate a cookie.
Or You could write...	For lunch I ate a sandwich, potato chips, and a cookie.

Doesn't that sound better?

Click on the flower to practice.