Transformation of Sentences

Transformation of a sentence usually means changing the form of a sentence without changing or altering the meaning or its sense.

Ever wonder what the use of knowing these conversions could be? Well! Here are a few to set you on the path to find answer to this question.

One reason is to shorten the length of messages and another one is to tweet and to write newspaper headlines. It helps us in presenting our sentences in multiple ways.

For example — Without trained faculty and infrastructure, India must not allow mushrooming of medical colleges.

Now, this sentence is an example of a newspaper headline, which is a simple sentence. The same sentence can be converted to complex sentence as: Unless India has trained faculty and infrastructure, it must not allow mushrooming of medical colleges.

There are three types of sentences based on the nature and number of clauses:

• Simple sentence
• Compound sentence
• Complex sentence

1. Simple sentence:

There is only one independent or main clause. It means there will be only one subject, one predicate and one finite verb.

For example: He was punished for the mischief.

• In this sentence, there is only one independent or main clause: He was punished for the mischief.
• There is only one subject: “He”
• There is only one predicate: “was punished for the mischief.”
• There is only one finite verb: “punished”

2. Compound sentence:

There are two or more independent clauses, and they are joined by coordinating conjunctions.

These coordinating conjunctions are : and, but, so, or, nor, for, yet

A mnenomic to remember co-ordinating conjunctions | Source: https://www.twinkl.co.in/

For example: He is a wealthy man, but he is not proud.

• In this sentence, there are two main clauses:

(1) He is a wealthy man.

(2) He is not proud.

• The two clauses are joined by coordinating conjunction: “but”

3. Complex sentence:

There is only one main clause and more than one dependent or subordinating clauses. These clauses are joined by subordinating clauses, viz. if, since, when, whenever, till, until, before, since, while, where, wherever, because, as, that, so that, lest, so….that, such…..that, unless, provided, as if, as though, than, before, after, although, even though.

Mnemonics to remember common subordinating conjunctions. | Source: https://www.twinkl.co.in/

For example: The students have been working hard so that they may understand the subject properly.

• In this sentence, there is one independent or main clause: “The students have been working hard”.
• In this sentence, there is one dependent clause: “so that they may understand the subject properly”.

Let’s look a little into something that we must understand before we transform these sentences into each other.

When we read a simple sentence and want to convert it into a compound or a complex sentence, we must first analyse if the actions (verbs) in a sentence add to each other, contradict each other, are alternative to each other, or if one action acts as reason for another action, or if one action action acts as a result of another action.

1. If one action add to another: and
2. If one action contradicts each other: but
3. If one action acts as reason for another action: since, because, as, etc
4. If one action acts as a result of another action: so…that, such….that, etc

It is very much important to heed the lesson of conjunctions while transforming sentences. If we want to transform the sentences, we should know the difference between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. In this way, we can transform sentences.

Make sure you read this next post in this series: Tricks for transformation of sentences | by Bhawna Rajput