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482

I don’t think of myself as giving “amazing” tips or “super-helpful” advice most of the time. Those are strong words. Maybe I’d use them for the top 5% of my tips or advice or less. If I used terms like those for over 50% of my tips, what would I say about the best ones? “Super super amazing”?

A larger portion of my tips can be amazing from someone else’s perspective who knows less than me.

I think as my skill went up, so did my standards for what is “amazing”. I wouldn’t think of something I can reliably do every day as “amazing” because it’s also “normal” for me.

If you think of the top 5% of what you can do as “amazing”, and you want to do “amazing” stuff all the time (or for all your stuff in a particular area), that’s going to block you. You can’t get outcomes in your top 5% more than 5% of the time…

You need to relax and be OK doing an average job. Even a below average job. Some days I do stuff that is below average for me. I try to watch out for things that are bad and not use them, but below average stuff is often OK to use. There are high stakes contexts like building a space ship where you only want to use above average work in the final product, but for most projects, even important or valuable projects, you can include some average and below average work and it’s OK. For most projects, errors can be corrected a lot more easily than with space ships, so you don’t have to try super hard to avoid any errors. Instead, for most projects, you want your 20th percentile work to be good enough to use, and if even your 5th percentile work is usable that’s better.

If you want to be great, you need to raise your average, raise your below average, not just try to be above average every day. You’ll always have below average days but maybe, hopefully, 10 years from now some of your below average things will be better than your current best things.

@lmd

1 Like
483

Yes. Since pretty early on, and more strongly for a few years.

“eat” is an infinitive functioning as a noun which is the object of “will”.

Infinitives, gerunds and participles are words based on verbs which function as nouns or modifiers. They are called “nonfinite verbs” but they can’t do the job of a regular (“finite”) verb. Nonfinite verbs are one of the harder grammar topics.

484

This may help especially the five examples at the beginning. But it only talks about infinitives with “to” in front.

@lmd

485

This article may help too.

It includes rules for when to omit the “to”:

We use the infinitive without to after modal verbs can, could, may, might, will, shall, would, should, must:

We also use the infinitive without to after let, make and (optionally) help:

I think it’s probably easier to understand to-infinitives first.

486

I can relate to this from my Starbucks job. Compared to when I started I am much better at making drinks on a below average day where I feel tired or off, then on my best days when I first started and thought I was super fast and accurate. I am much more accurate and quicker on my off days nowadays, then when I first started.

1 Like
487

I started reading part 2 today:

A complex sentence contains multiple simple sentences in one sentence. Simple sentences follow the patterns learned in part 1: verb, subject, object or complement, and modifiers. The most common way to combine them is by using a conjunction, which is a word like “and” that can join things together.

Analyzing a complex sentence has one new step. You’ll analyze each simple sentence using the four steps from part 1. And you’ll also analyze how the simple sentences are connected together.

The next section explains the general concepts for how words are grouped together in English, then conjunctions are explained after that.

  • A complex sentence is multiple simple sentences. Are there different types of sentences that are not simple or complex?
  • Analyzing a complex sentence involves doing the first four steps to the simple sentence parts and then analyzing how the conjunctions combine them.

Grouping

The words in sentences are organized in groups. A group is stuff which can also be viewed, together, as one thing. Groups can contain other groups.

Examples of groups: “My lunch” is a group with a sandwich, soup, and a drink. “Soup” is a group with broth, chicken, rice, and carrots. “Sandwich” is a group with bread, meat, tomatoes, pickles, mustard and mayo. “Pickles” is a group with five individual pickles. And an individual pickle is a group of atoms.

  • A group is a bunch of stuff put together that can be treated as one thing.
  • Aren’t words groups of letters?

English has two types of word groupings within sentences. A clause is a group of words that express a complete thought. A phrase is a group of words that express an incomplete thought.

A complete thought (clause) means a simple sentence. ”Clause” is the grammar word for “simple sentence”.

An incomplete thought (phrase) generally means a noun, verb, adjective or adverb, plus modifiers. It takes at least two phrases to make a sentence (a verb and a noun, the subject).

Note: A phrase can be a single word. It’s not wrong, and sometimes convenient, to say that the subject of a sentence is always a “noun phrase” (a phrase which functions as a noun) because there’s nothing wrong with groups with only one thing in them.

  • So a complex sentence is multiple clauses linked together.
  • It takes a verb phrase (verb) and a noun phrase(subject) to make a sentence.
    • Hmm. In “The ball is red”, “is red” is the verb phrase and “the ball” is the noun phrase?

Phrases

Most phrases have a main word (a noun, verb, adjective or adverb) and zero or more modifiers. We’ll call phrases by the type of their main word, e.g. “big, red car” is a noun phrase because it’s a noun (“car”) with modifiers. A noun (or verb, adjective or adverb) phrase functions as a noun (or verb, adjective or adverb) and can be used anywhere a noun (or verb, adjective or adverb) would be used.

A prepositional phrase has a preposition and a noun phrase. As a whole, it functions as an adjective or adverb. FYI, other types of phrases exist too.

  • Types of phrases:
    • noun
    • verb
    • adjective
    • adverb
    • prepositional phrase
      • consists of a preposition and a noun phrase
  • There are more types of phrases than those listed. Since a phrase can be a single word. Can various grammar points be called phrases? Like infinitive phrase, or determiner phrase?

Let’s look at the phrases in an example sentence:

The unusually cute cats very quickly ate kibble during the day.

  • ate - verb
  • cats - subject
  • kibble - object
  • modifiers - the, unusually, cute, very, quickly, during the day
    • the modifies cats
    • unusually modifies cute
    • cute modifies cats
    • very modifies quickly
    • quickly modifies ate
    • during the day is a prepositional phrase modifying ate
      • during is the preposition
      • the is a determiner modifying day
      • day is the noun governed by during
    • very quickly ate is a verb phrase
    • the unusually cute cats is a noun phrase
      • this has an adjective phrase
        • unusually cute is an adjective phrase modifying cat, the main word is cute modified by the adverb unusually
    • the day is a noun phrase governed by during

Detail: It’s ambiguous whether “during the day” modifies the verb “ate”, the whole verb phrase “very quickly ate”, or the whole clause (“cats ate kibble” plus modifiers). This ambiguity is typical of adverbs at the ends of clauses. However, it doesn’t matter. The sentence means the same thing regardless

  • Is this true of a lot of ambiguous cases? That the sentence will come out meaning the same thing regardless? I assume not.

Warning: Standard terminology uses the term “verb phrase” to mean “predicate”: the verb plus its object or complement, plus modifiers. It’d be reasonable to use “simple verb phrase” to mean a verb plus the adverbs modifying it.

Clauses

Clauses are the “simple sentences” that I’ve already explained. Let’s look at a couple examples in complex sentences:

John likes cats, but Sue likes dogs.

The clauses are “John likes cats” and “Sue likes dogs”. “But” is a conjunction which joins the clauses together into one sentence.

  • John likes cats
    • likes is the verb
    • john is the subject
    • cats is the object
    • no modifiers
  • Sue likes dogs
    • likes is the verb
    • Sue is the subject
    • dogs is the object
    • no modifiers
  • Ok, that makes sense. They both can act as their own sentences.

If it’s a weekday, I relax after I snore through school.

The clauses are “it’s a weekday”, “I relax”, and “I snore through school”. They are connected by the conjunctions “after” and “if”.

  • It’s a weekday.
    • It’s to it is?, so then:
      • “is” is the linking verb
      • it is the subject
      • weekday is the complement
      • a is modifying weekday
  • I relax.
    • relax is the verb
    • I is the subject
    • no object
    • no modifiers
  • I snore through school.
    • snore is the verb
    • I is the subject
    • no object
    • through school is the prepositional phrase modifying snore
      • through is the preposition
      • school is the noun governed by through

Note: Conjunctions aren’t always in between the clauses they join. “Conjunction + clause 1 + comma + clause 2” is a common sentence pattern. It means “clause 2 + conjunction + clause 1”. E.g. “While you sing, you should dance.” means “You should dance while you sing.”

  • do this while you do this, eat this while you’re at it, ok while is a conjunction
  • you sing
    • sing is the verb
    • you is the subject
    • no object
    • no modifiers
  • you should dance
    • dance is the verb
    • you is the subject
    • no object
    • should is modifying you?
488

Yes.

489

Read about conjunctions and communcating whats important today:

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are joiner words. They “conjoin” things (phrases or clauses) together. They connect or relate things.

  • Conjunctions can connect or relate phrases/clauses.

Coordinating conjunctions join equally important things. You can remember all seven with the FANBOYS acronym (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). Coordinating conjunctions can join phrases or clauses together.

  • The phrases/clauses that coordinating conjunctions are joining together are equally important. For example, “I will give you five dollars for that ice cream.” Both “I will give you five dollars” and “that ice cream” are viewed as equally important bits of information.
  • FANBOYS:
    • for
    • and
    • nor
    • but
    • or
    • yet
    • so

Subordinating conjunctions join something less important with something more important. They often have to do with time or reasoning, e.g.: “after”, “before”, “although”, “because”, “while” and “if”. Subordinating conjunctions can only join clauses, not phrases. Example: “I sing while I drive.”

  • Hmm. In “I sing while I drive” what is considered less important and more important. Is “I sing” the important part and “I drive” the less important part. while I drive is giving more information about I sing. Right? So is that why?

Only phrases of the same type can be joined, e.g. two nouns or two adjectives. The result is a single phrase of the same type. In “I want a cat or a dog.”, the conjunction “or” joins the noun phrases “a cat” and “a dog” to make the noun phrase “a cat or a dog”. Conjunctions can join a list of more than two phrases, e.g. “I plan to buy milk, butter, steak and waffles.”.

  • So if you’re joining two phrases, which you can’t do with subordination conjunctions, they have to be the same types of phrases. Milk, butter, steak, and waffles are all nouns.

Conjunctions can join phrases in simple sentences. You’ll need to keep that in mind when doing the four steps from part 1. For example, the subject could be “Joe and Sue” or the object could be “glass and aluminum”.

  • So John and Sue are considered one subject?

“And” is the most basic conjunction; it tells you two things are connected. Other conjunctions give more information about the relationship. “But” tells you that there’s a contrast between the two things. “Because” tells you that the second thing is a reason for the first. “After” tells you that the first thing happens later in time than the second.

  • and - connection
  • but - contrast
  • because - x because y, y is why x happened
  • after - this after that, sequence of events

Conjunctions that join clauses are more complicated than conjunctions that join phrases. First, you should know when not to use them. A sentence should express one thought. Only join two clauses in one sentence when they’re part of the same thought. Don’t use conjunctions to join unrelated things.

  • Hmm, what would something unrelated be? Let’s see: I like to eat bananas and Donald Trump is a man. Unless someone was asking me: do you like bananas and do you know whether Trump is a man or woman. The sentence is joining unrelated information. Like if someone asked, “Do you like bananas?” and I respond with that. That could be a problem.
  • Is joining unrelated things grammatically incorrect or just a bad way to communicate information?

Now let’s look at how to analyze an example sentence with two clauses:

I want pizza because I am hungry.

  • want is an action verb, am is a linking verb
  • because is the conjunction
  • i want pizza
    • want is the verb
    • i is the subject
    • pizza is the object
    • no modifiers
  • i am hungry
    • am is the linking verb
    • i is the subject
    • hungry is the complement

Communicating What’s Important

When you write a paragraph, not everything is equally important. You have some main points and some helper points. It’s important to communicate to the reader which are which. There are four main ways to do this. They’re imperfect and have exceptions. The fourth one is what to do when the first three don’t work well enough.

  • A paragraph is a group of sentences. Some sentences are main points, and some sentences are helper points. The reader should be able to tell which is which.

First, use the verb, subject, object and complement for main points. Use modifiers for helper points. Modifiers are subordinate to (less important than) the words they modify.

  • So a main point would just a verb, subject, object/complement while a helper point would use modifiers?

Second, put main points in main clauses, and put helper points in subordinate clauses. Clauses are automatically main clauses by default. They become subordinate only if there’s something to make them subordinate, such as a subordinating conjunction in front of the clause.

  • To turn a clause into a subordinating clause, use a subordinating conjunction in front of the clause.

Third, writing is always full of hints. Readers can usually pick up on what you think is important based on the words you use and by trying to understand your point. You can give extra hints with italics and by where you put words (the start and end are generally more important locations than the middle).

  • You can hint towards what your main point is by using stuff like italics (presumably with bold and underline too?) and by where you position your words.

Fourth, you can just plain tell the reader, in words, what’s important. You can say things like “My main point is”, “Detail:”, or “The idea about phones is a tangent.”. This is often useful in non-fiction, which tries to clearly communicate ideas, but it’s generally too inelegant for fiction.

  • You can just be blunt about what the main point is. Works for non-fiction, not the most elegant in fiction.
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Finished subordinating conjunctions, subordination examples, and some sentences in the conclusion. I started getting tired working on the sentences. I’ll finish analyzing the rest either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions are important for letting your reader know which clauses are helper clauses rather than main points. Helper clauses are generally more important than modifiers (which don’t have a complete thought) but less important than main clauses.

  • Main clauses > helper clauses > modifiers
  • Subordinating Conjunctions only work with clauses. They do not work with phrases

The subordinating conjunction always goes immediately in front of the clause it subordinates. In front of a main clause is either no conjunction or a coordinating conjunction.

  • While is a subordinating conjunction. So: “I eat while I do homework.” While is in front of the clause “I do homework”, so while is subordinating “I do homework” to “I eat”.

Compare “I ate my steak after I cooked it.” to “I cooked my steak before I ate it.”. People fluent in English can intuitively tell the difference. In the first one, eating the steak is more emphasized. In the second one, cooking the steak is more emphasized. The main clause has the main point of the sentence.

  • That makes sense. “I dance while I sing” the main point of the sentence is the dancing. “I sing while I dance” the main point of the sentence is the singing.

Optional Detail: There is a second way to interpret subordinating conjunctions which I don’t recommend. I’m only mentioning it because most other grammar materials do, so I want to explain what’s going on. In this alternative view, “subordinating conjunctions” are misnamed; they aren’t conjunctions. Instead, they go before a clause to make it function as an adverb. In “I sing after I eat lunch.”, the italic part is an adverb clause nested inside the main clause and there is no conjunction. That sentence is just verb, subject and adverb. Most grammar materials unclearly teach a confused, contradictory mix of both views. They say “after I eat lunch” is an adverb clause and say “after” is a conjunction and say that the main clause is only “I sing” without the adverb that modifies “sing”. That’s wrong. A subordinating conjunction can either be viewed as a conjunction or it can be viewed as governing a clause which it converts into an adverb by relating that clause to another part of the sentence, but not both at once. As long as you don’t mix them, either viewpoint can analyze sentences successfully. I recommend viewing subordinating conjunctions as conjunctions because it organizes sentences better. And a subordinate clause is a complete thought, which is more important than a mere modifier.

  • So subordinating conjunctions can turn the clause it subordinates into a modifier for the main clause?

Conclusion of Part 2

You now know enough to start practicing analyzing complex sentences. When you see two verbs, split the sentence into clauses and conjunctions, and note which clauses are main or subordinate. Then analyze each clause using the four analysis steps. Then consider how the clauses and conjunctions work together to create an overall meaning.

  • Step 1 - Find the verb/verbs
  • Step 2 - Find the conjunctions and clauses being joined
    • note which are main and which are subordinate
  • Step 3 - Analyze the clauses
    • find the verb
    • find the subject
    • find the object/complement
    • find the modifiers
  • Step 4 - Find an overall meaning

I work hard and I play hard.

  • work - action verb, play - action verb
  • and - conjunction, both points are equally important
    • “I work hard” - main clause
      • work - action verb
      • I - subject
      • no object
      • hard is modifying work
    • “I play hard” - main clause
      • play - action verb
      • I - subject
      • no object
      • hard is modifying play
  • I am someone who works hard. I am someone who plays hard. I am both at the same time.

Farting or belching is mildly impolite.

  • Is this complex?
  • is - verb
  • farting or belching - subject
    • or is a coordinating conjunction combining the two noun phrases farting and belching.
  • impolite - complement
  • mildly is modifying impolite

I went to a fancy university, yet I’m still quite ignorant.

  • went - action verb, I’m → I am, am - linking verb
  • yet - coordinating conjunction
    • “I went to a fancy university” - main clause and “I’m still quite ignorant” - main clause
    • “I went to a fancy university”
      • went - action verb
      • I - subject
      • no object
      • to a fancy university is a prepositional phrase modifying went
        • to is the preposition
        • a is a determiner modifying university
        • fancy is an adjective modifying university
        • university is the noun governed by to
    • “I’m still quite ignorant”
      • am - linking verb
        • I - subject
        • ignorant - complement
        • still is an adverb modifying quite
        • quite modifies ignorant
  • Yet functions as something like even though. So: I am someone who went to a university. The university could be considered fancy. Even though I went to the fancy university I am still ignorant. Quite so.
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It’s a bad way to communicate information. Grammar deals with rules, patterns and structure not content. That’s not super clear so you may want to look up some definitions and introductions to what grammar is.

492

Sort of, but a subordinate clause is not the same thing as an adjective. It’s a clause, not a phrase, so it can be a lot more independent.

493

Ok I did the rest of the part two sentences except the last one:

I write because I like good ideas.

  • write - action verb, like - action verb
  • “I write” is joined with “I like good ideas” with the conjunction “because”
    • I write
      • write is the action verb
      • I is the subject
      • no object
      • no modifiers
    • I like good ideas
      • like is the action verb
      • I is the subject
      • ideas is the object
      • good is the adjective modifying ideas
  • I am someone who writes due to the fact that I am someone who likes ideas which are considered good.

The bully hit my buddy and me pretty hard.

  • hit - action verb
  • bully - subject
  • “buddy and me” - object
    • two noun phrases joined together with and to create on object being acted on
  • modifiers
    • the modifies bully
    • my is an adjective modifying buddy
    • hard is an adverb modifying hit
    • pretty is adverb modifying hard
  • This sentence isn’t complex. There aren’t multiple clauses.
  • The bully hit my buddy and me. The bully hit us harder than expected.

I seriously think that Ayn Rand was wise.

  • think - action verb, was - linking verb
  • that is a subordinate conjunction, it subordinates “Ayn Rad was wise” to “I seriously think”
    • I seriously think
      • think - action verb
      • I - subject
      • no object
      • seriously modifies think
    • Ayn Rand was wise
      • was - linking verb
      • Ayn Rand - subject
      • wise - complement
  • I think. I think seriously. My serious thinking thinks that Ayn Rand was wise.
  • Hmm. I don’t know how to quite make sense of that here. Intuitively I just feel like I get “that”.

Don’t chew quickly while your mouth is open.

  • do - action verb, is - linking verb
  • while is the subordinate conjunction joining together “Don’t chew quickly” with “your mouth is open”.
    • Don’t chew quickly
      • do - action verb
      • implied subject?
      • not modifies chew, chew modifies do, quickly modifies chew
    • your mouth is open
      • is - linking verb
      • mouth - subject
      • open - complement
      • your modifies mouth

My daughter likes big dogs, but my son likes adorable cats.

  • likes - action verb, likes - action verb
  • but is the coordinating conjunction joining together “My daughter likes big dogs” with “my son likes adorable cats”.
    • My daughter likes big dogs
      • likes - action verb
      • daughter - subject
      • dogs - object
      • my is an adjective modifying daughter, big is an adjective modifying dog
    • my son likes adorable cats
      • likes - action verb
      • son - subject
      • cats - object
      • my is an adjective modifying son, adorable is an adjective modifying cats
  • My daughter likes dogs that are big. My son, instead, likes cats that are adorable.

If universities are full of uncurious professors, don’t attend one.

  • are - linking verb, do - action verb
  • if is a subordinate conjunction, it subordinates “universities are full of uncurious professors” to “don’t attend one”
    • universities are full of uncurious professors
      • are - linking verb
      • universities - subject
      • no object
      • full modifies the prepositional phrase “of uncurious professors”
        • of - preposition
        • professors - noun governed by of
        • uncurious modifies professors
    • don’t attend one
      • do - action verb
      • no subject, implied?
      • one - object
      • not modifies do
      • attend modifies do?

After you throw a small, red ball, while you sing, you should stamp your feet loudly, and you should clap your hands energetically, if it’s still daytime.

  • throw - action verb, sing - action verb, should - action verb(?), should - action verb, is - linking verb
  • So 5 different clauses joined together?
    • after joins “you throw a small, red ball” with “while you sing”
    • and joins “you should stamp your feet loudly” with “you should clap your hands energetically”
    • if joins together all the previous with “it’s still daytime”
  • Ok I’m confused on this one. Is after joining everything after, or only specific clauses, same with and, same with if.

I looked at some other posts people did and I think I did ok for these, except for the last one I’m still kind of confused on it. Do the commas play a part in how to tell what is joined with what?

494

Not especially but after finishing the grammar article read Curiosity – Using Commas next.

Can you make a list of main clauses and a list of subordinate clauses (including their conjunctions)?

495

After you throw a small, red ball, while you sing, you should stamp your feet loudly, and you should clap your hands energetically, if it’s still daytime.

Note: Conjunctions aren’t always in between the clauses they join. “Conjunction + clause 1 + comma + clause 2” is a common sentence pattern. It means “clause 2 + conjunction + clause 1”. E.g. “While you sing, you should dance.” means “You should dance while you sing.”

Can a clause be both a main clause and a subordinate clause in a sentence? I don’t think it was explicitly said in the article but I assume not. I tried searching for it, but then another confusion came up. When looking up main and subordinate clauses are you using them a bit differently? Some resources are saying that subordinate clauses are those which can’t stand by themselves in a sentence, but all the sentences I’ve worked with in the article so far seem to be able to stand on their own. No?

Main Clauses:
you should stamp your feet loudly
and you should clap your hands energetically

Subordinate Clauses:
After you throw a small, red ball
while you sing
if it’s still daytime

496

correct.

consider if it makes sense (in terms of meaning) for every subordinate clause to apply to every main clause. you can use this as a first guess in general for other sentences with non-nested subordinate clauses.

also consider if there’s any clear reason (in terms of meaning) that one of the subordinate clauses should apply to another subordinate clause, or only to one specific main clause.

and consider if there is more than one meaning of the sentence which you’re unsure between. if so, make a list of meanings that it might be. these meanings should be substantively different and explained in English as different things going on, not just be grammar details like “X modifies Y or X modifies Z”.

They mean that e.g. “if it’s still daytime” (including the conjunction at the start) can’t be a standalone sentence.

497

Some writing to share:

Aliens, Animals, and Humans

  • I’ve thought of this before but I came across this sort of thing again and I wanted to share my thoughts on it.
  • From American Futura:

    • “Truly, a sentient alien visiting earth for the first time would look around and wonder — just baffled — at our strange culture of electing people who spend most of their time attempting to kill us.”

  • The main thing I want to focus on is the sentiment towards aliens. I’ve noticed that whenever people talk about aliens, or portray aliens in media, they are, a lot of the times, just the perfect version of what they think humans should be. Take the above comment from American Futura for example. Now I don’t know Mike Solana’s (the writers) thoughts on this matter (and I’m not claiming these are his thoughts), but I feel like what people mean when they say comments like the above is that species with intelligence that are not human (how I’m roughly thinking of aliens here) would do better with their capacity for intelligence. These aliens would be “just baffled — at our strange culture …”. It gives me the notion that people think that the issue with how our intelligence is being used is our particularly human form. If other entities had our intelligence they would use it better.
  • I’ve also seen this kind of sentiment done with animals before. Where animals gain intelligence before and they use it better than humans.
  • I can’t think of examples right now off the top of my head for these two. I think Rick and Morty had aliens who were portrayed as smarter than humans? Its rarely the other way around where aliens view humans as the smarter beings.
498

I’ve beaten 182 levels of Baba over ~62 hours. Levels/progression have noticeably gotten a lot harder.

499

Part of what people mean is the aliens wouldn’t have our biases. They might have their own different biases, and be no better than us, but some of our mistakes would still look absurd to them because they didn’t grow up in our culture and learn to be biased about stuff from our world.

1 Like
500

Cool. What are some adjustments you’ve made as you got further along? Patterns you’ve noticed or strategies you’ve been using?

501
  • after you throw a small, red ball, you should stamp your feet loudly - that makes sense
  • after you throw a small, red ball you should clap your hands energetically - that makes sense
  • you should stamp your feet loudly while you sing - that makes sense
  • you should clap your hands energetically while you sing - that makes sense
  • you stamp your feet loudly if it’s still daytime - that makes sense
  • you should clap your hands energetically if it’s still daytime - that makes sense
  • I’m confused between these two sentence meanings:
    • 1.) after a small red ball is thrown while singing at the same time
    • 2.) then you should stamp and clap, if it’s still daytime
    • 1.) after a small red ball is thrown
    • 2.) then you should stamp your feet loudly and clap your hands energetically while singing
    • Hmmm.

Note: Conjunctions aren’t always in between the clauses they join. “Conjunction + clause 1 + comma + clause 2” is a common sentence pattern. It means “clause 2 + conjunction + clause 1”. E.g. “While you sing, you should dance.” means “You should dance while you sing.”

  • So I think “after you throw a small red ball” and “while you sing” are subordinate to the main clauses “you should stamp your feet loudly, and you should clap your hands energetically”