PERT Practice Test 2025 – Comprehensive Study Guide for Postsecondary Education Readiness Success!

A compound sentence is characterized by having at least two independent clauses that are connected by a conjunction, such as "and," "but," or "or." Independent clauses express complete thoughts and can stand alone as sentences. When combined, they form a compound sentence that provides a more complex understanding of the ideas being presented.

For instance, in the sentence "I wanted to go for a walk, but it started to rain," both "I wanted to go for a walk" and "it started to rain" can stand on their own as complete sentences, making it a compound sentence. This structure allows the writer to connect related ideas or contrast them, enhancing the richness of the expression and the flow of the text.

The other options do not describe the features of a compound sentence correctly. A sentence without a subject lacks the fundamental component of a complete thought, while a sentence that contains only one independent clause would be classified as a simple sentence. Lastly, the length of a sentence does not inherently determine its structure; a compound sentence can be long or short.