How to Write
Long,
Complicated,
Beautiful
English Sentences
An English with Lee Guide
© Lee Davis 2017
www.englishwithlee.com
This guide may be freely copied with attribution for personal and educational use.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………... 3
2. The Basics……………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
2.1 Parts of Speech…………………………………………………………………………………. 3
2.2 Grammar Terms…………………………………………………………………………………. 4
3. Now...Let’s Make Long Sentences!………………………………………………………………. 6
4. Modifying Nouns…………………………………………………………………………………….. 7
4.1 Adjectives………………………………………………………………………………………... 7
4.2 Participial Adjectives……………………………………………………………………………. 7
4.3 Nouns as Adjectives…………………………………………………………………………….. 8
4.4 Appositional Phrases…………………………………………………………………………….8
4.5 Adjective Phrases……………………………………………………………………………….. 8
4.5.1 Participial Phrases………………………………………………………………………...8
4.5.2 Prepositional Adjective Phrases………………………………………………………....9
4.5.3 Infinitive Adjectives and Infinitive Adjective Phrases…………………………………. 9
4.6 Adjective Clauses (or Relative Clauses)……………………………………………………... 9
5. Modifying Verbs……………………………………………………………………………………..10
5.1 Adverbs…………………………………………………………………………………………. 10
5.1.2 Sentence Adverbs………………………………………………………………………. 11
5.2 Adverb Phrases………………………………………………………………………………... 11
5.2.1 Prepositional Adverb phrases…………………………………………………………..11
5.2.2 Infinitive Adverb Phrases………………………………………………………………..12
5.3 Adverb Clauses………………………………………………………………………………... 12
6. Compound Sentences…………………………………………………………………………….. 13
6.1 How to Make Compound Sentences………………………………………………………....13
6.2 Conjunctive Adverbs…………………………………………………………………………... 14
7. Practice on Your Own……………………………………………………………………………...14
7.1 Exercise 1………………………………………………………………………………………. 14
7.2 Exercise 2………………………………………………………………………………………. 15
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1. Introduction
My students often remark how English is full of long, rich, complex sentences. In almost
any example of written English, you’ll find multi-word subjects and objects, stacks of
phrases, clauses modifying nouns and verbs, and surprise twists and turns creating
intricate, compelling sentences with lots of information.
Reading long sentences can be difficult, and writing them can be very intimidating. This
guide is to help demystify the process.
We’ll start with a basic, simple sentence—the kind that anyone can write. Then we’ll
expand it by adding words, phrases, and clauses to its basic nouns and verbs. Once
you learn a few basic structures, I hope you’ll find that writing long, beautiful,
complicated English sentences is a lot easier than you think!
Disclaimer: This isn’t a comprehensive guide, and there are a lot more ways to make
sentences interesting than I outline here. I hope that this will get you started though, and
outline a few clear, easy ways to build interesting sentences.
2. The Basics
First, let’s start by reviewing the basic parts of speech and grammar terms that we’ll use
later in this guide.
2.1 Parts of Speech
Nouns - words for people, places, objects, and ideas.
Examples: pizza, dinosaur, Barack Obama, love, sister, India, light
Verbs - words for actions, both external and internal
Examples: jump, find, cook, believe, doubt, realize, run
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Pronouns - words that take the place of a noun
Examples: he, she, him, her, that, this, these, those
Adjectives - words that modify nouns
Examples: funny, strange, purple, exciting, disappointed, happy
Adverbs - words that modify verbs or adjectives
Examples: quickly, very, arrogantly, strangely, happily
Prepositions - words that connect words to each other in a sentence
Examples: in, at, on, by, through, for, to, towards, along
Conjunctions - words that join together words and phrases
Examples: and, or, but, so
Determiners - words that indicate more information about a noun
Examples: a, an, the, my, his, these, some
Interjections - words to express emotions and surprise
Examples: oops, hey, oh, darn, whoa
2.2 Grammar Terms
Subject - The part of a sentence, always a noun or noun phrase, that is what the
sentence is mainly about, and which performs the main action (verb) of the sentence. A
noun phrase is a noun and all the modifiers (including individual words, phrases, and
clauses) that describe it.
Examples: The clock struck midnight.
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My wonderful grandmother always makes me chicken soup when
I have a cold.
The fact that you forgot your key is no excuse to wake me up in
the middle of the night.
Object - The part of a sentence which receives the action of the verb.
Examples: I met Lola at the cafe.
Jeremy found ten dollars in the park.
Phrase - A small group of words that make up a “chunk of meaning,” but don’t have a
subject and a conjugated* verb. (The phrase types next to the examples will be
discussed in more detail later.)
Examples: walking to school (participial phrase)
in a daze (prepositional phrase)
the well-designed bicycle (noun phrase)
Note: “Conjugated” means that the verb has a tense. The tense alters the verb’s
form to reflect the nature of its noun, and the time at which the action takes place. For
example: “walks,” “walked,” and “will walk” are all conjugated, meaning that they can
receive a subject before them, and describe when the action takes place. But the
infinitive form—“to walk”—and the present participle—“walking”—are not
conjugated; a subject can’t be placed before them, and they don’t convey when an
action takes place.
Clause - A clause is usually a group of words that contains a subject and a conjugated
verb. A special type of clause, called an infinitive clause, contains an infinitive verb (a
verb in its “to” form, such as “to walk,” and “to speak”) and other words.
An independent clause can stand on its own as a sentence:
Examples: You did an amazing thing.
I’ll see you next week.
A dependent clause cannot stand on its own as a sentence; it contains words
that indicate it needs to be attached to an independent clause in order to be
complete.
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Examples: that it needs to be fixed
after I finish lunch
which showed up last week
to ask her to dance
3. Now...Let’s Make Long Sentences!
Every long, complicated sentence is made up of small, simple parts. Let’s begin with
one of the simplest sentence structures in English: subject + verb + object.
The girl bought a book.
Very simple, and rather boring. It has two nouns (a subject and an object), a verb, and
two articles. Now let’s look at different ways we can modify the nouns and verbs, until
we have a long, twisty, complicated sentence like:
The girl in the purple cape bought a suspicious book about magic from a
magician who didn’t trust her.
Now it’s a very interesting sentence! And all we did was add words, phrases, and
clauses to the basic sentence. Let’s look at how we did that.
Word, Phrase, or Clause Grammar Term Function
“in the purple cape” prepositional phrase acts as an adjective to
modify “the girl”
“suspicious” adjective modifies “book”
“about magic” prepositional phrase acts as an adjective to
modify “book”
“from a magician” prepositional phrase acts as an adverb to
modify “bought”
“who didn’t trust her” relative clause acts as an adjective to
modify “magician”
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In the rest of this guide, we will explore different ways to modify nouns and verbs to
create interesting sentences.
4. Modifying Nouns
Nouns are modified by adjectives, adjective phrases, and adjective clauses.
4.1 Adjectives
Adjectives are easy! Try adding some adjectives to the nouns in the simple sentence:
The evil girl bought an orange book.
The wonderful, crazy girl bought an amazing book.
The intelligent girl bought a foreign book.
4.2 Participial Adjectives
Some adjectives, called participial adjectives, are made from the past and present
participle forms of verbs.
Examples: focused, dripping, interesting, bored, exhausted, relaxing.
The focused girl bought an interesting book.
The interesting girl bought a relaxing book.
Note: Generally, the past participle form of an adjective describes how the noun
that it modifies feels (interested, appalled, relaxed). The present participle form of
an adjective describes how the noun that it modifies will make other people feel
(interesting, appalling, relaxing).
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4.3 Nouns as Adjectives
Sometimes nouns can be used as adjectives to modify other nouns. Not all nouns can
be used as adjectives.
Examples: California, science fiction, poetry, office.
The California girl bought a poetry book.
The office girl bought a science fiction book.
4.4 Appositional Phrases
Appositional phrases are noun phrases that rephrase or identify the noun.
Examples: a student at the university, a history of Japan, a big fan of reading, a
dictionary, Pride and Prejudice
The girl, a student at the university, bought a book.
The girl bought a book, Pride and Prejudice.
4.5 Adjective Phrases
When a few words do the job of an adjective and modify a noun, this is an adjective
phrase. The following are examples of different kinds of adjective phrases.
4.5.1 Participial Phrases
Participial phrases are adjective phrases that start with a participial adjective.
Examples: wishing for a miracle, written by a ghost, running from zombies,
drinking a glass of wine
The girl running from zombies bought a book.
The girl bought a book written by a ghost.
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4.5.2 Prepositional Adjective Phrases
Prepositional phrases start with a preposition (in, on, about, by, of, from, like, at)
followed by a noun, and the articles and adjectives that come before it.
Examples: in the red hat, of poetry, on Sunday, from the North Pole, like that
The girl from the North Pole bought a book.
The girl in the red hat bought a book of poetry.
The girl bought a book like that on Sunday.
4.5.3 Infinitive Adjectives and Infinitive Adjective Phrases
Infinitives are verbs in their “to” form (i.e. “to go,” “to play”), which can be used
like adjectives to modify nouns. They usually talk about the purpose for which
the noun will be used. Infinitive phrases are made up of the infinitive verbs
and the words that come after them.
Examples are: to read, to translate into Mandarin, to use as a doorstop
The girl bought a book to read.
The girl bought a book to translate into Mandarin.
4.6 Adjective Clauses (or Relative Clauses)
Adjective clauses start with a relative pronoun (who, which, that, whose, etc.) and
modify a noun. They are also known as relative clauses.
Examples: who needed a good meal, that exploded as soon as she touched it, who
wore a blue hat, which she found in a tiny bookshop
The girl who needed a good meal bought a book.
The girl bought a book, which she found in a tiny bookshop.
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Note on Commas: There’s a lot of confusion about when to set an adjective clause
apart with commas. If the clause is restrictive, meaning it’s necessary in order to
understand the noun it modifies, then you don’t add commas. If the clause is
nonrestrictive, meaning that it adds extra information to the noun it modifies (i.e. you
could remove it and the sentence would still make sense), then you do add commas;
this function is similar to that of parentheses.
Example:
● The children, who had been playing outside all afternoon, slept very well.
The adjective clause is set apart by commas because it adds extra
information to the noun. Without it, you still understand that the subject is
some specific children.
● Children who play outside all day will probably sleep well.
The adjective clause is not separated by commas because it is necessary to
understand the subject. Without it, you might think this sentence means “all
children,” when in fact it means only children who play outside all day.
5. Modifying Verbs
Verbs are modified by adverbs, adverb phrases, and adverb clauses.
5.1 Adverbs
Adverbs, like adjectives, are also fairly straightforward.
The girl bought a very good book.
The girl nervously bought a terribly pretty book.
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5.1.2 Sentence Adverbs
Most adverbs modify verbs and adjectives, but in some cases, adverbs can
modify the whole sentence. They express the speaker or writer’s opinion about
the sentence, or put it in context. Sentence adverbs usually come at the
beginning of a sentence, and are separated by a comma.
Examples: unfortunately, obviously, technically, basically, hopefully, ironically,
thankfully, luckily
Unfortunately, the girl bought a book.
Technically, the girl bought a book.
5.2 Adverb Phrases
Adverb phrases are groups of words that describe when, where, how, and why the
action happened.
5.2.1 Prepositional Adverb P
hrases
Prepositional p hrases c an a
ct a
s adverbs a
s well a
s adjectives. I f i t c omes a
t t he
beginning of a
s entence, u
se a
comma a fter it.
Examples: a t nine o’clock, in a tiny bookstore, like everyone else, for some
reason, for her best friend
The girl bought a book at nine o’clock.
The girl bought a book in a tiny bookstore.
The girl bought a book for her best friend.
Like everyone else, the girl bought a book.
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5.2.2 Infinitive Adverb Phrases
Infinitive phrases describe the purpose of the verb.
Examples: to pass her exams, to learn about dragons, to prove she cared about
studying
The girl bought a book to pass her exams.
The girl bought a book to learn about dragons.
Hint: If you’re wondering whether an infinitive phrase is an adverb, try
substituting “in order to” for “to.” If the meaning is the same same, it’s an adverb
phrase. For instance, these two sentences have the same meaning:
The girl bought a book to prove she cared about studying.
The girl bought a book in order to prove she cared about studying.
5.3 Adverb Clauses
Adverb clauses are clauses that answer the main “adverb questions:” how, when,
where, and why. Adverb clauses begin with subordinating conjunctions. There are a
lot of subordinating conjunctions, but some of the common ones are: because, since,
until, unless, even though, when, where, although, like, as if, as though
Examples: although her sister didn’t want her to, unless she didn’t, because she wanted
to learn about robots, when it went on sale, as if it would save her life, before someone
else bought it
The girl bought a book when it went on sale.
The girl bought a book although her sister didn’t want her to.
The girl bought a book because she wanted to learn about robots.
The girl bought a book as if it would save her life.
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6. Compound Sentences
Now that you know how to write more interesting complicated sentences, you can also
combine them in compound sentences. Compound sentences are made out of two
independent clauses that are equally important. The two independent clauses could
remain as separate sentences, but if you want to combine them, you can do so in
several ways.
6.1 How to Make Compound Sentences
1. Use coordinating conjunctions like and, or, or but.
The girl bought a book, and her brother bought a violin.
The girl bought a book, but she forgot to take it out of the store.
2. Use a semicolon to connect two related independent clauses.
The girl bought a book; her brother bought a violin.
The girl bought a book; she needed it for school.
3. Use an dash. It’s just like a semicolon, but more dramatic. It’s more suited to
fiction or opinion pieces than academic or business writing.
The girl bought a book—it was the only item she brought with her to
boarding school.
4. Use a colon when the second independent clause illustrates the first. This is not
very common, but it is an option.
The polls are in: she’s definitely in the lead.
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Note: It’s more common to use a colon to give more information about
something mentioned in the sentence.
The girl bought a book: Pride and Prejudice.
The girl bought several books: Pride and Prejudice, The Shining, and
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.
6.2 Conjunctive Adverbs
You can also connect independent clauses using conjunctive adverbs, which illustrate
sequence, cause and effect, contrast, or other relationships between clauses. Use a
period or semicolon between independent clauses connected with a conjunctive
adverb, and always put a comma after it.
Examples: thus, therefore, consequently, on the other hand, again, likewise, however,
instead
The girl bought a book; therefore, she didn’t have any money for ice cream.
The girl bought a book. However, she didn’t plan on reading it.
7. Practice on y
our Own
xercise 1
7.1 E
ith a
Begin w simple s entence o
f y our o
wn. Y
ou c an m
ake u
p y our o
wn, o
r u
se o
ne o
f
these:
My brother drove his car.
The children ate ice cream.
The girl found a kitten.
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Make them into long, beautiful, complex sentences using adverbs, adjectives, phrases
and clauses. If you make a sentence you particularly like, I’d love to hear from you! I’ll
give you feedback, and let you know if it’s grammatically correct.
Share it with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ESLwithLee
7.2 Exercise 2
Read the following famous quotes from literature. In each, the author has used phrases
and clauses to make long, interesting sentences. See if you can identify the different
phrases and clauses used below, and what nouns and verbs they modify in the
sentence.
“He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her,
like the sun, even without looking.”
- Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina”
“How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to
improve the world.”
- Anne Frank, her diary
"Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went
completely out of his mind."
- Miguel de Cervantes, “Don Quixote”
“It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been
to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.”
- Harper Lee, “To Kill a Mockingbird”
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"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk,
mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or
say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles
exploding like spiders across the stars."
- Jack Kerouac, “On the Road”
Thank you!
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