Flashcard 7 - High School English II: Writing Flashcard Set for the STAAR test

Martha and Lance waited patiently at the bus stop instead of walking to school.

A simple sentence has the most basic elements of a sentence: a subject, a verb, and a complete thought. Even though it is longer, the “Martha and Lance waited patiently” sentence is actually a simple sentence. The Martha-waited-but-Lance-walked sentence is actually a compound sentence because there are two independent clauses (“Martha waited for the bus” and “Lance decided to walk”) joined together with a comma and a coordinating conjunction (but).