Sentence
A sentence is a group of words that are joined together to mean something. It is the basic unit of language and expresses a complete thought. It does so by following the grammatical basic rules of syntax: Ram is walking.
A complete sentence has at least a subject and a main verb to state (declare) a complete thought: She walks. A subject is the noun (name) that does the main verb. The main verb is the activity that the subject does.
In English and many other languages, the first word of a written sentence has a capital letter. At the end of the sentence there is a punctuation mark depending on whether it is a statement, a question, a command, a request or an exclamation.[1]
Phrases and clauses
A phrase or clause is part of a sentence.[2]p773–777
This is an example of a sentence:
- The dog is happy.
In this sentence, The dog is the subject, and is is the verb.
This is an example of a phrase:
- The happy dog
There is no verb and so we do not know anything about what the happy dog is doing. Therefore, it is not a sentence.
A clause is a sentence within a sentence:
- They milked the cows, and then they made cheese and butter. This sentence has two co-ordinate (equal) clauses, linked by and.[2]p220
Types of sentence
- A simple sentence has only one clause and one independent variable: The cat is sleeping.
- A compound sentence has two or more clauses, which are joined with conjunctions, punctuation, or both: The dog is happy, but the cat is sad.
- A complex sentence has one clause with a relative clause: The dog, which is eating the bone, is happy.
- A complex-compound sentence (or compound-complex sentence) has many clauses, at least one of which is a relative clause: The dog, which is eating the bone, is happy, but the cat is sad.
Sentences have different purposes:
- A declarative sentence, or declaration, is the most common type of sentence. It tells something. It ends with a full stop . (The dog is happy.)
- An interrogative sentence, or question, asks something. It ends with a question mark ? (Are you happy?)
- An exclamatory sentence, or exclamation, says something out of the ordinary. It ends with an exclamation mark ! (That dog is the happiest dog I have ever seen!)
- An imperative sentence, or command, tells someone to do something. It ends with a full stop . (Give the dog a bone.)
Basic English sentences
Here are some sentences written in Basic English:
The sky is blue.
Today is Monday.
Tomorrow is Tuesday.
The baby is smiling.
Sheila is reading a book.
This is the road to take.
Read a book about the history of America.
There are beautiful flowers growing in the garden.
The cushions are new and I feel the comfort they give me.
They are playing in the grounds.
Related pages
References
- ↑ Parts of Sentence. GrammarWord. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 McArthur, Tom (ed) 1992. The Oxford companion to the English language. Oxford University Press.