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Anonymous Posted 9 years ago
Grammar

Query is this a complex sentence?

Here is the sentence "Running into the room where his brother was sleeping, Jack jumped onto the bed exuberantly." Is this a simple sentence or a complex sentence? I think it is a simple sentence with 'Jack' as th subject and the predicate 'jumped into the bed exuberantly'. 'Running into the room' is a participle phrase describing Jack. 'Where his brother was sleeping' - I think this is an adverbial phrase modifying the participle phrase....? Or is it a subordinate clause, with his brother as the subject and was sleeping as the predicate?
  

Top answer

anonymous "[Running into the room where his brother was sleeping ,] The underlined part is a relative clause modifying 'room'. The bracketed part is a gerund-participial clause ( participial phrase in traditional grammar) functioning as an adjunct-- it provides non-essential information about 'Jack' in the main clause. anonymous Is this a simple sentence or a complex sentence?

— Persian Learner

  • anonymous "[Running into the room where his brother was sleeping ,] The underlined part is a relative clause modifying 'room'.
  • The bracketed part is a gerund-participial clause ( participial phrase in traditional grammar) functioning as an adjunct-- it provides non-essential information about 'Jack' in the main clause.
  • anonymous Is this a simple sentence or a complex sentence?
  • It's a complex sentence since you have a subordinate clause in the sentence.
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3 Answers
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anonymous"[Running into the room where his brother was sleeping,]

The underlined part is a relative clause modifying 'room'.

The bracketed part is a gerund-participial clause (participial phrase in traditional grammar) functioning as an adjunct-- it provides non-essential information about 'Jack' in the main clause.

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anonymous Or is it a subordinate clause, with his brother as the subject and was sleeping as the predicate?

Yes. Whenever you see an inflected verb, you have a full clause, either a subordinate or main clause.

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Running into the room where his brother was sleeping, Jack jumped onto the bed exuberantly.

The underlined expression is a subordinate clause (non-finite), not a phrase, so it's a complex sentence.

Like most non-finite clauses it is subjectless, but we understand it as though it does have a subject. In this case, we understand it to be "Jack", since it was he who did

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