directions: underline the nouns in the following sentences
1.
the plane landed safely at the airport
2.
the girl dropped the glass on the table.
3. my cat likes to play with string and yarn.
4. i saw my teacher at the store.
5. is there a dime in the bank?
6. there was a huge spider crawling across the floor.
7. is that child waiting to get on the bus?
8. a monkey jumped down and grabbed the banana.
9. the book must be returned to the library soon.
10. my stuffed bear fell in the mud

Plane, Airport, Girl, String, Yarn, I, Teacher, Store, Dime, Bank, Spider, floor, child, bus, monkey, banana, book, library, bear, mud

sentences vary by structure as well as by function. there are compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences.

simple sentence

i like to read.

a simple sentence has one independent clause.

compound sentence

i like to read, and i also like to write.

a compound sentence includes more than one independent clause, connected by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, nor, or, so, or yet).

complex sentence

i prefer to read books that are bestsellers.

a complex sentence includes one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. (a dependent clause is one that cannot stand alone.) types of dependent clauses include relative clauses (i kicked the boy who pinched me), adverb clauses (i am going home now because i have a curfew), and noun clauses (i don't know what to do next).

compound-complex sentence

although i prefer to read current bestsellers, i do like to read old agatha christie mysteries, and i also like some 20th-century science fiction.

compound-complex sentences take a bunch of clauses (multiple independent clauses, and one or more dependent clauses) and toss them together like a salad. although these sentences take practice to write in a grammatically correct fashion, they can hold a tremendous amount of meaning, and are common in academic writing.