How to Punctuate a Compound Sentence

First, in order to understand how to punctuate a compound sentence, one first must understand what a compound sentence is.  A compound sentence is two complete sentences that have been combined into one, with a conjunction and a comma separating the two ideas.  The two most common conjunctions used are AND and BUT.  To begin, we will start with two separate sentences:

Ex. Joey enjoys watching television.  His favorite show is Looney Tunes.


In order to combine these sentences, the writer needs to: 1) Drop the period 2)Add a comma in place of the period 3) Add the conjunction AND after the comma 4) Change the second capitalized letter to a lowercase letter.  The final compound sentence will look like this:


Ex. Joey enjoys watching television, and his favorite show is Looney Tunes. 


Another example using the conjunction BUT would look like this:


Ex. Joey wanted to go outside and play.  It was raining.


The final sentence would look like this:


Ex. Joey wanted to go outside and play, but it was raining.

For more practice with compound sentences, visit this page.