02 The Simple Sentence
Grammar
Consider the sentence:
The sun rises daily.
Something happens. Something-or-somebody does something.
In this sentence, ‘The sun’ is the subject of the sentence, and ‘rises’ is the main verb.
The form of the verb, ‘rises’, is in the present tense. It also tells us that it happens repeatedly. (If we had wanted to state that is is happening now, we would have said ‘The sun is rising.’) Because the meaning is ‘limited’ in this way, we call it a finite verb. Every sentence must have a finite verb.
We can extend the sentence:–
The bright sun rises daily.
Here ‘bright’ – an adjective – describes or qualifies the noun. It narrows down the meaning of ‘sun’ by giving the ‘quality’ of the sun – it is bright.
‘Daily’ – an adverb – describes or modifies the verb. It narrows down the meaning of the verb by stating the ‘mode’ of its rising – it is daily.
Now consider this sentence:–
The sentry raises the flag daily.
‘the flag’ is the object of the verb ‘raises’.
In the second sentence, the meaning flows from the subject to the verb, and then across to the object. The Latin for ‘across’ is trans (in the cousin language of Irish it is trasna) and so this type of verb is called a transitive verb. In the first sentence, the meaning is complete with the subject + verb. This type of verb is called an intransitive verb.
In English, the normal word order for the simple sentence is subject–verb–object.
It may seem strange to the beginner that different languages have different word order. Each seems normal and natural to the native speaker of that language.
In Irish, the normal word order for the simple sentence is verb–subject–object:
Ardaíonn an fairtheoir an bhratach gach uile lá.
[raises] [the sentry] [the flag] [each-and-every day].
(In Latin, the normal order is subject–object–verb;
in Greek, French and German it is subject–verb–object…)
Now consider this sentence:
The nurse gave a sedative to the patient last night.
‘The nurse’ is the subject, ‘gave’ is the finite verb; ‘a sedative’ is the direct object; and ‘to the patient’ is the indirect object. The flow of meaning is continued past the direct object to a second, ‘indirect’ object, by the meaning of the verb.
In Irish, the indirect object is marked by do:–
Thug an bhanaltra suaimhneasán don othar aréir.
N.B. that in English there is the option of showing this by the word order alone:
The nurse gave the patient a sedative last night.
For further information on some more complex sentences, see Section 77: Relative Clauses.