GCSE English LanguageGrammar and punctuation
30 questions on sentence types and structure. Pick your answer, then tap to see if you were right and why. Every question comes from the Show Working English Language bank, and every line quoted from a book is checked word for word against a public-domain copy.
Every board rewards a range of sentence forms in your writing, and asks you to comment on sentence forms in the reading. Here you name simple, compound, complex and minor sentences, find main and subordinate clauses, and tell statements from questions, commands and exclamations.
01 / Quiz yourselfTry it, then tap to check
Choose your answer before you open it. Then read why, so it sticks.
01 / Sentence types and structureA line from a book
“Fog everywhere.”
Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Answer: B Minor sentence
A minor sentence has no main verb, so it is not a full clause. Length is not the test: “Fog fell.” is only two words but it is a simple sentence, because “fell” is a verb.
02 / Sentence types and structureA line from a book
“Implacable November weather.”
Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Answer: B Minor sentence
There is no verb here at all, just an adjective and nouns. Dickens strings minor sentences together at the start of the novel like quick notes, so the scene builds up one detail at a time.
03 / Sentence types and structureA line from a book
“Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud.”
Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party, and Other Stories
Answer: B Minor sentence
There is no main verb, so this is a minor sentence. Mansfield lists the details of the perfect day in quick fragments, as if someone is glancing around and noticing them.
04 / Sentence types and structureA line from a book
“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Answer: C Simple sentence
It has one main clause with one main verb, “was”, so it is a simple sentence. It states a fact, so its function is declarative. A plain, flat opening line like this makes the reader wonder why no walk was possible.
05 / Sentence types and structureA line from a book
“Reader, I married him.”
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Answer: C Simple sentence
One main clause, one verb (“married”): a simple sentence that states a fact, so it is declarative. Speaking straight to the reader and keeping the most important event so short makes it feel confident and final.
06 / Sentence types and structureA line from a book
“Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts.”
Charles Dickens, Hard Times
Answer: B Imperative
It opens with a verb in the command form, “Teach”, and gives an order, so it is an imperative sentence. Gradgrind speaks in commands because he expects to be obeyed.
07 / Sentence types and structureA line from a book
“Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.”
Charles Dickens, Hard Times
Answer: A Compound sentence
There are two main clauses, “Plant nothing else” and “root out everything else”. Each could stand alone as a command, and the coordinating conjunction “and” joins them, so the sentence is compound.
08 / Sentence types and structureA line from a book
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Answer: D Complex sentence
The main clause is “It is a truth universally acknowledged”. The clause beginning “that a single man” cannot stand alone: it completes the main clause, so it is a subordinate clause and the sentence is complex.
09 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
The rain stopped, so we walked to the park.
Answer: A Compound sentence
“The rain stopped” and “we walked to the park” both make sense on their own. The coordinating conjunction “so” joins them, which makes a compound sentence.
10 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
Although the rain stopped, we stayed inside.
Answer: D Complex sentence
“Although the rain stopped” cannot stand alone as a sentence, so it is a subordinate clause. “We stayed inside” is the main clause. A main clause plus a subordinate clause makes a complex sentence.
11 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
Maya opened the door and the cat ran out.
Answer: A Compound sentence
There are two main clauses, “Maya opened the door” and “the cat ran out”, and each could be a sentence by itself. The coordinating conjunction “and” joins them, so the sentence is compound.
12 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
When the bell rang, everyone left the room.
Answer: D Complex sentence
“When” is a subordinating conjunction. It makes “When the bell rang” a subordinate clause that depends on the main clause, “everyone left the room”. So the sentence is complex.
13 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
I wanted to go, but my brother refused.
Answer: A Compound sentence
“I wanted to go” and “my brother refused” are both main clauses, joined by the coordinating conjunction “but”. Two main clauses joined this way make a compound sentence.
14 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
Because it was snowing, the match was cancelled.
Answer: D Complex sentence
“Because it was snowing” begins with the subordinating conjunction “because” and cannot stand alone. It hangs on the main clause, “the match was cancelled”, so this is a complex sentence.
15 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
The girl who won the race was delighted.
Answer: D Complex sentence
“Who won the race” is a relative clause: a kind of subordinate clause that tells us more about “the girl”. The main clause is “The girl was delighted”. So the sentence is complex.
16 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
Silence.
Answer: B Minor sentence
With no verb, “Silence.” is a minor sentence. Placed after a noisy scene, its shortness copies the sudden quiet and makes the reader pause on it.
17 / Sentence types and structure
Answer: B The shop shut early because the owner was ill.
“Because the owner was ill” is a subordinate clause hanging on the main clause “The shop shut early”, so that sentence is complex. The one with “and” joins two main clauses (compound), and the others are simple and minor.
18 / Sentence types and structure
Answer: A Sam missed the train, so he took a taxi.
In the right answer, “Sam missed the train” and “he took a taxi” are both main clauses joined by “so”. The “because” sentence is complex, the next is simple, and “Late again!” has no verb, so it is minor.
19 / Sentence types and structure
Answer: C The old lighthouse stood alone on the cliff.
A simple sentence has one main clause. “The old lighthouse stood alone on the cliff” has one subject and one verb, however much detail it adds. The others are compound, complex and minor.
20 / Sentence types and structure
Answer: C Not again.
“Not again.” has no verb, so it is a minor sentence. “Stop it now.” is short too, but “Stop” is a verb, so it is a simple sentence (an imperative one).
21 / Sentence types and structure
Answer: D If you hurry, you will catch it.
“If you hurry” is a subordinate clause, and in the right answer it comes first, followed by a comma. In “You will catch it if you hurry” the same clause comes at the end instead.
22 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
Close the window.
Answer: B Imperative
It gives an order and starts with a verb in the command form, “Close”. That makes it an imperative sentence. Imperatives often have no stated subject: “you” is understood.
23 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
Where did you leave your bag?
Answer: D Interrogative
It asks a question and ends with a question mark, so its function is interrogative. Questions often start with a question word such as “where”, “why” or “how”.
24 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
The library opens at nine.
Answer: C Declarative
It simply states a fact, so it is declarative. Most sentences in stories and articles are declarative.
25 / Sentence types and structure
Answer: A A clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence
Every clause has a verb. A main clause makes sense on its own as a sentence. A subordinate clause, often starting with a word like “because”, “although” or “who”, adds to a main clause and cannot stand alone.
26 / Sentence types and structureOur own example
Ella laughed because the joke was silly.
Answer: A because
“Because” is a subordinating conjunction. It starts the subordinate clause “because the joke was silly”, which explains the main clause “Ella laughed”.
27 / Sentence types and structure
Answer: C but
Coordinating conjunctions such as “and”, “but”, “or” and “so” join two main clauses as equals. Subordinating conjunctions such as “because”, “although”, “unless” and “when” start a subordinate clause.
28 / Sentence types and structure
Answer: C It creates a sudden shock
A short simple sentence after a long one breaks the rhythm. The reader is brought up sharply, so the moment stands out and feels sudden or shocking.
29 / Sentence types and structure
Answer: C It piles up detail, like the crowd
Clause after clause adds more and more sights and sounds without a pause. The long, crowded sentence mirrors the crowded, bustling market it describes.
30 / Sentence types and structure
Answer: B To tell the reader directly what to do
Imperatives are commands. In persuasive writing they speak straight to the reader and push them towards an action, which makes the writing feel urgent.
02 / Where marks slipOne thing to watch
Calling any long sentence complex. A complex sentence has a subordinate clause; a long one joined only by “and” is compound.
03 / In the appComing to Show Working
In the app, Sentence types and structure gives you ten questions at a time, picked from all 48, with the reason after every answer. English Language is built, but it isn’t on phones yet: it will arrive in an update.
Coming soon to the App StoreOur own questions, written for every board. Lines from books are from authors who died long enough ago that their words are free to quote. Show Working is independent and not affiliated with any exam board.
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