Sometimes you may want to expand a short sentence, in order to add more detail or meaning. Learn how to write complex sentences with this guide for KS3 English students aged 11-14 from BBC Bitesize.

Consider the following examples too: She likes eating, drinking and to sleep. (Wrong) She likes eating, drinking and sleeping. (Correct) He went there, held a meeting with them and has left.

Only use a comma to separate a dependent clause at the end of a sentence for added emphasis, usually when negation occurs. 3. Use commas to offset appositives from the rest of the sentence.

Do not use a colon after an incomplete sentence. Semicolon – Connect related ideas. A semicolon links two complete sentences that are closely related, without using a conjunction.