compound sentence

A sentence that contains at least two independent clauses. See also:

• Coordinating Words, Phrases, and Clauses
• Simple and Compound Sentences in Gilbert Highet's "Diogenes"

Examples and Observations:

• "Feasts must be solemn and rare, or else they cease to be feasts."
  (Aldous Huxley)



• "The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
  The desert sighs in the bed,
  And the crack in the teacup opens
  A lane to the land of the dead."
  (W. H. Auden, "As I Walked Out One Evening")



• "I used to be snow white, but I drifted."
  (Mae West)



• "We have three methods of joining independent clauses to produce compound sentences: (1) using coordinating conjunctions; (2) using the semicolon, either with or without conjunctive adverbs; and (3), for limited situations, using the colon."
  (Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar, Allyn and Bacon, 1998)



• "A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on."
  (John F. Kennedy)



• "Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one."
  (Lyndon B. Johnson)



• "It was dawn outside, a glowing gray, and birds had plenty to say out in the bare trees; and at the big window was a face and a windmill of arms."
  (David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, 1996)



• "Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time."
  (Gerald R. Ford)



• "I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming."
  (Jimmy Carter)



• "Trust, but verify."
  (Ronald Reagan)



• "I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them."
  (George H. W. Bush)



• "You can put wings on a pig, but you don't make it an eagle."
  (Bill Clinton)



• "I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land."
  (Jon Stewart)