AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE
Compound : Jones is a rich man but he is not honest. Simple : The news is too good to be true.
Complex : Jones is not honest although he is a rich man. Complex : The news is so good that it cannot be true.
Compound : Search his pockets and you will find the watch. Simple : It is never too late to mend.
Complex : If you search his pockets, you will find the Complex : It is so late that it cannot be mended.
watch. Simple : He is too late to hear the first speech.
Compound : Do as I tell you, or you will regret it. Complex : He is so late that he can not hear the first
Complex : Unless you do as I tell you you will regret it. speech.
Compound : The lion was wounded but not killed. Simple : The boy is too old for a whipping.
Complex : The lion was not killed although he was Complex : The boy is so old that he cannot whip.
wounded. (b) Sentences expressing a Condition.
Compelx into Double or Multiple (Compound) Double : Work hard and you will succeed.
Complex : If you speak, you shall die. Complex : If you work hard, you will succeed.
Compound : Speak and you will die. Complex : Should you work hard, you will succeed.
Complex : If you do not speak, you shall die. Compound : Unless you work hard you will not succeed.
Compound : Speak or die. Simple : It is never too late to mend.
Complex : He failed although he did his best. Complex : It is never so late for anything that it cannot
Compound : He did his best, still he failed. be mended.
Complex : I have lost the pen which my father gave me. (c) Sentences expressing Concession or Contrast.
Compound : My father gave me a pen and I have lost it. He is honest though poor.
Complex : I am certain you have made a mistake. Poor as he is, he is honest.
Compound : You have made a mistake, and of this I am Although he is poor, he is honest.
certain. In spite of his poverty, he is honest.
Complex : I am glad that he has recovered from illness. For all his poverty, he is honest.
Compound : He has recovered from illness, and I am glad Admitting that he is poor, he is honest.
of it. He is poor; all the same he is honest.
Complex : We can prove that the earth is round. (d) Interchange of Degrees of Comparison.
Compound : The earth is round, and we can prove it. Positive : This book is not as good as that.
Complex : I have found the book that I had lost. Comparative : That book is better than this.
Compound : I had lost a book, but I have found it. Positive : Birds do not fly as fast as the aeroplane.
Complex : As soon as he got the telegram, he left in a Comparative : The aeroplane flies faster than birds.
taxi.
Positive : I am as strong as he.
Compound : He got the telegram, and immediately he left
Comparative : He is not stronger than I.
in a taxi.
Positive : This razor is not as sharp as that one.
Complex : He worked hard so that he might win the
Comparative : The razor is sharper than this one.
prize.
Positive : Few historians write as interestingly as
Compound : He aimed at winning the prize and worked
Joshi.
hard.
Comparative : Joshi writes more interestingly than most
Other ways of Transformation of Sentences
historians.
(a) Sentences with the Adverb too can be transformed as
Comparative : Ram is better than any other boy in the
follows :
class.
Simple : He speaks too fast to be understood.
Positive : No other boy in the class is as good as
Complex : He speaks so fast that he cannot be under-
Ram.
stood.
Positive : No other metal is as useful as iron.
Simple : This tree is too high for me to climb.
Comparative : Iron is more useful than any other metal.
Complex : This tree is so high that I cannot climb it.
Superlative : Iron is the most useful of all metals.
Simple : He was too small to reach up to the branches
Comparative : Shakespeare is greater than any other
of the tree.
English poet.
Complex : He was so small that he could not reach up
Superlative : Shakespeare is the greatest of the En-
to the branches of the tree.
glish poets.
Simple : She is too clever not to see through your
Comparative : This newspaper has a bigger circulation
tricks.
than any other morning paper.
Complex : She is so clever that she will be through your
Superlative : This newspaper has the biggest circula-
tricks.
tion among morning papers.
Simple : These mangoes are too cheap to be good.
Superlative : This building is the tallest in the city.
Complex : These mangoes are so cheap that they can-
Comparative : No other building in the city is taller than
not be good.
this.
SEE–79