Periodic Sentence Structure: What Is a Periodic Sentence?

A periodic sentence is a complex sentence in which the main clause, or main point, occurs at the end of the sentence instead of the beginning. In the traditional grammatical approach to sentence structure, a subject and predicate occur at the beginning of the sentence forming an independent clause. This clause expresses a complete thought and can stand on its own as a simple sentence.

In traditional complex sentence structure, the independent clause precedes the dependent clause, a group of words that offer additional information but do not form a complete sentence. Periodic sentences utilize complex sentence structure but invert it by placing the dependent clause(s) in front of the main independent clause.

A periodic sentence aims to create suspense for the reader, who must read the whole sentence to figure out the main thought. An independent clause also gains greater emphasis by its placement as the final revelation of a periodic sentence.

The periodic structure takes a different approach to syntax, or the set of rules that helps readers and writers make sense of sentences.

Here is an illustration of periodic sentence structure from Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood: “Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there.”

“Like the waters of the river,” “like the motorists on the highway,” and “like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks” are dependent clauses. They precede the main thrust of the sentence—“drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there”— which is an independent clause. The syntax accomplishes the primary goal of a periodic sentence: to create suspense and emphasize the idea that nothing dramatic happened in the location that Capote is describing.

There are many examples of periodic sentences in literature. Excerpts from some of the most famous examples include:

1. 1. “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To believe your own thought, to believe that is what is true for you is true for all men, that is genius.”
2. 2. Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse: “In the almost incredibly brief time it took the small but sturdy porter to roll a milk-can across the platform and bump it, with a clang, against other milk-cans similarly treated a moment before, Ashe fell in love.”
3. 3. Snow-flakes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Out of the bosom of the Air/Out of the cloud-folds of her garment shaken/Out of the woodlands brown and bare/Over the harvest-fields forsaken/Silent, and soft, and slow/Descends the snow.”

Both a periodic sentence and a loose sentence feature independent clauses and dependent clauses. The main distinction between the two types of sentences lies in the placement of these clauses. The periodic sentence places the main clause at the end of the sentence and the dependent clause at the beginning. Inversely, a loose sentence, also known as a cumulative sentence, places the main clause at the beginning of the sentence and the dependent clause precedes it.

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