All English Classes: Sentence Types (Complex/WABUs & Prepositions)

In class today we looked at subordinate conjunctions (aka WABUs) and prepositions. WABUs are words that begin clauses that are secondary to the main independent clause of a sentence. They're similar to the FANBOYS, except they can unquestionably start a sentence as well as come in the middle of a sentence. The WABUs are:

Wh- words like Who, Where, Why
After
Before
Unless

Wh- words like When, Wherever, Whoever
As
Because
Unitl

Wh- words like Which, Whichever, Whenever
Although/Though
That
If
Since
Than

Note the acronym formed by the first letters: WABU WABU WATIST

If you have an independent clause (simple sentence) like I brushed my teeth and add a subordinate clause at the beginning -- Before I ate breakfast -- you'll separate the two with a comma.

Before I ate breakfast, I brushed my teeth.

If the subordinate clause comes after the independent clause, no comma is needed.

I brushed my teeth before I ate breakfast.

We also looked at prepositional phrases. Prepositions are words used to link little bits of information together. Pretty much any word that fills in the blank in the sentence THE SQUIRREL RAN ______________ THE TREES is a preposition (because these are magic trees BEFORE, AFTER, WITH, FROM all work. Note: BEFORE and AFTER are both WABUs and prepositions; what makes a clause different from a phrase is that a clause has a noun/subject and a verb, a phrase has one or the other).

As with WABUs, if the preposition starts the sentence, the phrase is set off from the independent clause by a comma; if it comes after the independent clause, no comma is needed.

Before breakfast, I brushed my teeth.

I brushed my teeth before breakfast.

You can string together prepositional phrases without inserting commas between them.

I brushed my teeth with my Mickey Mouse toothbrush before breakfast.

Please create two sentences. One must have a WABU. The other must have a prepositional phrase.