Sentence

*** A sentence ALWAYS starts with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark ***

1. A sentence can include a noun and a verb

noun: a person, place, thing or idea.

verb: an action word.

• Example 1: The bird flew.

In this sentence, the noun is “bird” and the verb is “flew”.

2. A sentence can include a subject and a predicate

subject: the person, place or thing which the sentence is about

predicate: describes the subject (what the subject is doing, or what is being done to it)

• Example 2: The angry bird flew quickly across the sky.

In this sentence, the subject is “The angry bird” and the predicate is “flew quickly across the sky”.

3. A sentence can also be called an "independent clause"

Independent clauses are called “independent” because they do not “depend” on any additional words in order to become complete sentences.

• Example 10: The plane flew.

In this example, the independent clause “the plane flew” became a complete sentence without any additional words. All that it required was capitalization and punctuation.

Types of Sentence Structures

Simple

These sentences have one independent clause. The clause usually expresses just one idea/ thought. Additionally, these sentences only carry a single verb.

Examples:

• The maid is cooking.

• Sam is sleeping.

• Her mother is sweeping the house.

Compound

These sentences have more than one independent clause and can be joined together using conjunctions or punctuation. The punctuation mark used is the semi-colon and conjunctions include: and, but, yet, for, so, nor, and or.

A compound sentence includes more than one subject or predicate. A compound sentence does not require a compound subject or a compound predicate.

Examples:

• The bird sang and the plane flew.

• The boy sang and dance.

• The boy sang and dance, but his sister did not sing and dance.

Complex

These sentences have a main clause and a dependent clause (at least one). Additionally, complex sentences have to subordinate conjunctions which indicate a dependent clause, such include, like because, after, as, although, how, before, since, if, once, then, where, until, whether, that, till, and while.

Examples:

• I missed my exam because I was late. (The independent clause is “I missed my exam,” whereas the dependent clause is “because I was late” and the subordinating conjunction is “because”)

• I cooked hurriedly after his arrival. (“I cooked hurriedly” is the independent clause whereas the dependent clause is “after his arrival” and “after” is the subordinating conjunction)+

Subjects and Predicates

subject: the person, place or thing which the sentence is about

predicate: describes the subject (what the subject is doing, or what is being done to it)

Complete subject

A complete subject includes all the words that tell who or what the sentence is about.

Example: The small child ate all of her vegetables.

The small child is the complete subject.

Complete predicate

A complete predicate includes all of the words that tell what the subject is or what the subject does.

Example: The small child ate all of her vegetables.

ate all of her vegetables is the complete predicate.

Simple subject

The simple subject is the main word in the complete subject.

Example: The small child ate all of her vegetables.

The complete subject is "The small child" and the simple subject is the word "child".

Simple predicate

The simple predicate (verb) is the main word or group of words in the complete predicate.

Example: The small child ate all of her vegetables.

The complete predicate is "ate all of her vegetables" and the simple predicate is the word "ate".

Compound Subject

A compound subject includes two or more simple subjects. Compound subjects are created through the use of conjunctions (connecting words, like “and”, “or”, and “but”).

Example: The bird and the plane flew.

This sentence contains 2 simple subjects and 1 simple predicate. In other words, the sentence contains a compound subject and a simple predicate. The simple subjects are “The bird” and “the plane”. They are connected by the conjunction “and”. When combined, they form the compound subject “The bird and the plane”.

Compound Predicate

A compound predicate includes two or more predicates.

Example: The bird flew and sang.

This sentence contains 1 simple subject and 2 simple predicates. The simple predicates are “flew” and “sang”. Connected by the verb “and”, they form the compound predicate “flew and sang”.