LESSON 1.45
Trees and Secondary Sentences
Grades 9+
Review
Secondary sentences occur when a main branch sprouts smaller branches that are also sentences. For example:
Jill will farm after graduation, and Bill will spend the summer in France, where he will practice his French.
Main Sentence 1: Jill will farm after graduation,
Conjunction: and
Main Sentence 2: Bill will spend the summer in France
Conjunction: where
Secondary sentence: he will practice his French
where he will practice his French has grown out of the sentence Bill will spend the summer in France.
To create the tree, start with the two main sentences:
Decide where the secondary sentence joins the main sentence. In this case, where he will practice his French joins at France.
France, where he will practice his French.
Place the lesser conjunction in the correct position.
Insert an S to show that what comes next is a sentence:
s
Finally, insert the secondary sentence.
More About Secondary Sentences
Rather than start with two main sentences, let’s draw a tree for a sentence that consists of one main sentence and a secondary sentence:
Rahib went to Albania, although he is supposed to be in Kosovo.
Main sentence: Rahib has gone to Albania
Conjunction although
Secondary sentence: he is supposed to be in Kosovo
Small Group Activity
One great value of learning to create trees is that they help us learn the logic of syntax, aka language order. Let’s examine our choices for joining the secondary sentence to the main sentence. Which is the correct tree? Why?
Possible Tree #1:
Possible Tree #2:
Possible Tree #3:
Adding Another Secondary Sentence
Let’s add another secondary sentence to the main sentence:
Rahib went to Albania, where his brother lives, although he is supposed to be in Kosovo.
Main sentence: Rahib has gone to Albania
Conjunction: although
Secondary sentence: he is supposed to be in Kosovo
Main sentence: Rahib has gone to Albania
Conjunction: where
Secondary sentence: his brother lives
Before continuing, let’s clear up a possible confusion. Does the he in he is supposed to be in Kosovo refer to Rahib or to his brother? Let’s change he to Rahib to avoid misunderstanding.
Adding a Third-Level Sentence
Now we will add a third-level sentence: one that has grown out of a secondary sentence. We will add whenever he is home from working in Germany to the sentence. The result will be: Rahib went to Albania, where his brother lives whenever he is finished working in Germany, although Rahib is supposed to be in Kosovo.
Small Group Activity
- Fill in the information for each sentence.
- Create trees.
- Color the trees.
- Brick and Louise have started a graduation gown business, but it will fail because they are lazy.
Main sentence 1:
Conjunction:
Main sentence 2:
Main sentence 2:
Conjunction:
Secondary sentence:
On which word does the secondary sentence join the main sentence?
2. Plaka will continue setting up the speakers unless we say stop.
Main sentence:
Conjunction:
Secondary sentence:
On which word does the secondary sentence join the main sentence?
3. Ready for a challenge?
Shevak and Dezira married Jacobi and Chef, even though Jacobi was a robot and Chef was a salad. (Remember to treat even though as one word.)
Main sentence:
Conjunction:
Secondary sentence 1:
Conjunction
Secondary sentence 2:
On which word do the secondary sentences join the main sentence?
Individual or Small Group Activity
Complete the exercise: Poland