CurriculumGrade 7English Language Arts

Grammar, Conventions & Vocabulary

Aligned to L.7.1 — Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.

What this lesson teaches

Phrases and clauses are word groups that do different jobs in a sentence, and choosing among simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences makes your writing more varied. Combining short sentences adds sophistication.

Worked example

Two short sentences, 'The storm hit. We lost power,' can combine into a complex sentence: 'When the storm hit, we lost power.' The variety reads more smoothly.

Practice questions

  1. Combine two short sentences into a complex one.
  2. Identify a clause in a sentence and its job.
  3. Rewrite a choppy passage using varied sentence types.

Watch the lesson

Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.

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En español

Gramática, Convenciones y Vocabulario

Las frases y las cláusulas son grupos de palabras que cumplen funciones distintas en una oración. Elegir entre oraciones simples, compuestas, complejas y compuesto-complejas hace que tu escritura sea más variada. Combinar oraciones cortas le da mayor sofisticación al texto.

Ejemplo: Dos oraciones cortas, 'La tormenta llegó. Se fue la luz', pueden combinarse en una oración compleja: 'Cuando llegó la tormenta, se fue la luz.' La variedad hace que el texto fluya mejor.

More Language lessons

Commas and CapitalizationL.7.2Precise, Concise LanguageL.7.3Unlocking Word MeaningL.7.4Figurative Language and NuanceL.7.5Building Academic VocabularyL.7.6

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