What is a Sentence?
Compound Saw
If you want to write good English you have to know how to put the words together to communicate what you want to get over to your readers. That is, you have to know what a sentence is, what kind of sentences you can use, and how and when to use the different kinds of sentences.
Compound Saw
You are interested in writing English so you have to command all the types of sentences that occur in the English language. It is not enough to have a big vocabulary. You have to know how to put the words together to communicate what you want to get over to your readers. You have to learn what a sentence is to write a good sentence. You have to learn the agreement between subject and verbs to avoid basic errors, and finally you have to learn how to express time in your writing.
We will discuss all the parts of a sentence, all the types of sentences, and provide exercises for you to recognize correct and incorrect sentences. However, this is only the start. To be able to write, you have to write. You can't learn how to ride a bicycle without getting on one. You can't learn how to swim without getting wet. But first we'll give you the basic building blocks so you can put them together yourself in your own writing.
A sentence is a group of one or more words that make sense by themselves and do not depend on the words that go before or come after them. A sentence expresses a statement, question, request, or command. A well written sentence needs two parts: a subject and a predicate. Don't be afraid of these grammatical words. The ideas behind them are easy to understand.
Subject and Predicate
The subject tells us what (or which person) the sentence is about, while the predicate tells something about the subject, usually what the subject is doing. Take a look at the following sentence. For you to see more clearly, the predicate is enclosed in parentheses ( ), and the subject is underlined. Mary sings.
Mary and Peter sing every morning. How do we know that Mary is the subject? To know which word is the subject of a sentence, we have to first find the verb the verb and then make a question by placing "who?" or "what?" before it -- the answer is the subject.
Practice this with the following sentences. The dog littered the living room floor with ripped newspapers and torn curtains. The verb in the above sentence is "littered." Who or what littered? The dog did. "The dog" is the subject of the sentence. The predicate (which always includes the verb) goes on to relate something about the subject: what about the audience? It "littered the living room floor with ripped newspapers and torn curtains." Every subject is built around one core, or central or simple subject.
The simple subject is a noun or pronoun. Look at the following example:: A starting job at the factory would surely make him very happy. The subject is built around the noun "job," with the other words of the subject -- "A", "starting", and "at the factory" -- modifying (telling us more about) the noun. "Job" is the simple subject. When you write, you may build your sentence with a simple subject. It still is "simple" even if It may have other words telling more about (modifying) it.
In the same way, a predicate is built around a simple predicate, which is always the verb or verbs that link up with the subject. In the example we just considered, the predicate is "surely make him very happy". However, the heart of the predicate is the simple predicate which is the verb "make". The other words complete the simple predicate. They tell us that the job will "surely make him very happy". It is very useful for you to review other people's writing to identify the simple predicates and simple subjects. This will help you be confident as you build your own sentences.
There are other forms the subject and predicate can take.
Compound Subject: Sometimes you will be writing about more than one person or thing. The thing that interests you, the subject, may be made up of two, three, or more parts. That means you will be writing a sentence with a compound subject. A compound subject is a simple subject consisting of more than one noun or pronoun -- as in these examples: Carrots, onions, and potatoes (go into most stews). His sister and his uncle (ran along the beach picking up shells).
Compound Predicate:Sometimes you will be writing than a person or a thing does more than one thing. In this case you will be writing a sentence with a compound predicate, a predicate that includes more than one verb pertaining to the same subject.
Look at these examples. Mary (sews and cooks). The famous author (read extensively in a loud voice and answered all the questions put to him). What does Mary do? She sews and cooks. This is a compound predicate. (sews and cooks). What did the author do? He read and answered. How did he read? Extensively and in a loud voice. What did he answer? Questions How many questions? All Which questions? Those which were put to him. The simple subject is "author"; the simple predicate is "read and answered". (Although it is a compound subject, it is at the simplest level).The main idea is "author read and answered".
You have to learn to cut down to the skeleton of a sentence to understand it. Of course, just to say "author read and answered" is caveman talk. The writer of the sentence wanted to tell us more. He gave us more details about how and what the author read and answered. Once you can analyze sentences you will write better. You must keep control of your writing. If you use a compound subject or predicate, don't lose track of the central idea. Then you add the details that tell the reader when, where, how etc. These ideas are communicated by adjectives or adverbs, or by clauses and phrases used as adjectives or adverbs.
Kinds of Sentences A sentence may be one of four kinds, depending upon the kind of clause it contains. Now that you know what a subject and a predicate are, you can learn about the clause.
A clause is a group of related words that contain a subject and a predicate. If the sentence has more than one clause, its type depends on the type of clause it contains. The independent clause contains a subject, a verb, and a complete thought. It can stand on its own; therefore it is independent. The dependent clause contains a subject and a verb, but no complete thought. It cannot stand on its own, it is dependent, that is, it depends on a complete thought somewhere else in the sentence.
The Simple Sentence: The most basic type of sentence is the simple sentence, which contains only one clause. The simple sentence has a subject and a predicate. Examples: The train stops. (basic subject and predicate) The train stops quickly. (adverb added to predicate) The train stops quickly in the station. (phrase added to predicate) The troop train loaded with ten cars stops quickly making a lot of noise. (adjective and adjective phrase added to subject, and adverbial phrase added to the predicate).
As you can see, a simple sentence can be quite long. Although it only has one subject and predicate, there can be lots of modifiers (words that offer more information) This is the most common sentence in the spoken language of people of all ages. You should start your writing with simple sentences. When you write, simple sentences can be very effective. As you improve, you can add transitional words to make your writing flow better. Too many simple sentences can make your writing sound immature
The Compound Sentence: A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses (or simple sentences) joined by co-ordinating conjunctions like "and," "but," and "or": Bolivia is a country with many natural resources, but still it has many poor people. Compound sentences are very natural for English speakers. You will have no trouble writing them. This form is present in the human mind no matter what language you speak A compound sentence is most effective when you use it to create a sense of comparison or contrast between several pieces of information: Fish is good for you but many people do not eat it.
The Complex Sentence: This type of sentence is very different from a simple sentence or a compound sentence because it makes clear which ideas are most important. When you write: My mother gave me a present. I did not need anything. The reader will have trouble knowing which piece of information is most important to you.
However, when you write: My mother gave me a present although I did not need anything. You make it clear with the subordinating conjunction "although" at the beginning of the second clause that the fact that your mother gave you a present is less important than, or subordinate, to the fact that you did not need it.
Groups of words that are often parts of sentences but are NOT sentences by themselves:
There are groups of words that are not sentences by themselves. You can use these groups of words correctly in your writing. However, sometimes they are errors and are called sentence fragments. Clauses and phrases are not errors when they complete the subject or predicate.
For example, I can write "Sales are important." That is a correct sentence. The following is also correct. "Sales are important in good business cycles and in bad times also." The phrase "in good business cycles and in bad times also" adds information. It acts like an adverb because it adds information (modifies_ the verb "are". It tells us when sales are important. It is an adverbial phrase.
Let's look a quick look at Clauses, Phrases, and Fragments. After presenting them, more detailed examples follow.
The Clause: A clause is a collection of grammatically-related words including a predicate and a subject (though sometimes is the subject is implied). A collection of grammatically-related words without a subject or without a predicate is called a phrase. Clauses are the building blocks of sentences: every sentence has at least one clause, or more. You will have to know what clauses are to use them correctly in your writing.
The Phrase: A phrase is a group of two or more grammatically linked words without a subject and predicate. D
Difference from Sentences: How are clauses and phrases different from sentences? This is very important because one of the errors of beginning writers is that they do not write complete sentences. They leave sentence fragments in their work.
A sentence fragment is a clause or a phrase that cannot exist by itself. They write phrases and clauses and think that they are sentences. This error happens more often with clauses because they have subject and predicate and seem to be sentences but do not express a complete ide by themselves.
Let's review what a sentence is. We learned that a sentence is a group of one or more words that make sense by themselves and do not depend on the words that go before or come after them.
A sentence expresses a statement, question, request, and command. You noticed that a clause fragment may have a subject and a predicate but it does not make sense by itself.
A simple sentence is: Mary was baking a cake. A clause such as "baking a cake" also can have almost the same predicate but it does not make sense by itself. We have to ask Who is baking. When is the baking going on? Where is the baking done? Why is there baking? What is being baked? The words "baking a cake" are a sentence fragment.
The Fragment: By now in the previous sections you have seen several examples of sentence fragments. Writers also leave loose phrases as sentence fragments. Fragments are a problem of the writer. You must know the difference to avoid them. A fragment resembles a sentence in a number of ways. They can look like sentences because the writer mistakenly puts a capital letter at the beginning of the fragment and finishes with an end mark like a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point.
Phrase Fragments: A phrase does not have a subject and a predicate. These are more easily spotted when you review your work. Later on we will tell you how to convert these phrase fragments into proper sentences. The words "in the basement' or "at the beginning of Spring" are phrases. They are not sentences. They do not have a subject and predicate and they don't make sense on their own. You will use phrases in your writing to add information to a sentence. They can do the job of a subject, an object, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb.
The underlined words in each of the following sentences make up a phrase.
The windshields of the cars gleamed in the noonday sun.
She bought a ladder with guard rails when she went to the hardware store.
We heard noises like barking in the middle of the afternoon. In early Spring,
John sowed the tomato plants from China.
Can you tell which phrases act like adjectives and which like adverbs? The phrases "of the cars", "with guard rails", "like barking", "from China' are adjectival phrases. They work like adjectives. The tell us more about (that is, they modify) a noun.
NOTE: The words "when he came back from Chicago", or "when she went to the hardware store" are clauses. We'll learn more about them. For the moment, let's concentrate on the phrases.
The phrases "in the noonday sun", "to the hardware store", "in the middle of the afternoon", "In early Spring" are adverbial phrases. They work like adverbs (that is, they modify) a verb. They tell us when: "in the middle of the afternoon", "In early Spring" or where: "in the noonday sun", "to the hardware store".
Clause Fragments: Some fragments are clause fragments. They are not sentences. Although they do have a predicate and maybe a subject, they don't make sense on their own. When you check your writing and suspect that a group of words is not a complete sentence, you have to find three things: a subject (even if only understood and not expressed), a verb, and a complete thought.
If one of these three things is missing, it's not a sentence; it is a fragment. To repeat, a clause fragment will have a predicate (and maybe a subject) but will not communicate a complete thought. So since one of the three ingredients is missing, it is not a sentence.
In the following examples, the predicate is underlined and the subject, if present, is enclosed in parentheses.
And ran far enough down the road to escape.
The boy sitting in the tree eating apples.
You can clearly see that neither of these examples presents a complete thought. The first clause has no subject. The second has no verb. They have clause fragments, just like the phrase fragments you just saw a few lines above, can act like adjectives or like adverbs.
The clause "far enough down the road to escape" is adverbial. It acts like an adverb because it modifies the verb "ran", telling us where. The clause "sitting in the tree eating apples" is adjectival. It acts like an adjective clause (that is, modifies the noun "boy". Note that the phrase "in the tree eating apples" is adverbial because it acts like an adverb, modifying the verb "sitting" telling us where.
BUT! At times grammar is very closely connected to the style of writing. Charles Dickens, a classic English writer, wrote the first two paragraphs of his novel, Bleak House, in incomplete sentence fragments that clearly violated the "rules of grammar". Look at the following selection of his writing.
... Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes--gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun. Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one another's umbrellas in a general infection of ill temper, and losing their foothold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke... Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green meadows; fog down the river... fog lying out on the yards and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats...Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon and hanging in the misty clouds.
Do you notice anything different about his selection? There is not one complete, "correct" sentence in the two paragraphs. They are all fragments. In other words, Dickens broke the "rules" of grammar. But he did it for a reason. He did it for reasons of style. We get the feeling of a dirty, smoky, damp, wet, foggy city from his words. His writing makes us feel that we are looking around and taking in views of the city of London. Many critics have said that his writing could not have the same effect if he wrote a series of correct sentences. The quick, repeated views are the work of a master of style who was able to go beyond the "rules" of grammar. We are not masters like Dickens but it important to think about the close relationship between grammar and style.
The example from Dickens was included to emphasize that there is no agreement as to what are the most important grammatical points for those who want to write English well. You have to try to write correctly. Yet, there will be times when you will knowingly "break" the rules to make a point, or to establish a mood. However, most of the time you should go by the rules and correct any sentence fragments you find in our writing.
Comma splices, and Fused Sentences:
Note: Much of what follows about the use of commas and semicolons to fix bad sentences can be found in the section on Punctuation. To correct the errors in your writing, you have to be able to find them. The two major mistakes you may make in your writing are: comma splices, and fused sentences. Both are the result of the poor use of phrases and clauses.
What are comma splices and fused sentences? They are problem sentences that contain two or more main clauses incorrectly joined together. Every main clause contains an independent subject and verb, so it can stand alone as a complete sentence. A comma splice incorrectly joins two main clauses with a comma, like this: main clause, main clause. For example: It was raining, I stayed inside. A fused sentence has two main clauses joined with no punctuation at all, like this: main clause main clause. For example: Water was running from the broken pipe John the plumber, was asleep.
TO FIX A COMMA SPLICE OR FUSED SENTENCE YOU CAN:
Fix by making two complete sentences:
Since comma splices and fused sentences contain two main clauses, you can always add a period at the end of the first clause and then begin the second one with a capital letter. Take a look at the following fused on sentence: Peter likes to ride his favorite bay horse he also likes to drive his Jeep.
Make two complete sentences.
This can be fixed by writing: Peter likes to ride his favorite bay horse. He also likes to drive his Jeep.
Fix by using a comma and a coordinating conjunction:
Please excuse this grammatical word but it is useful. A "conjunction" joins two clauses, just like a train junction is where a lot of trains get together. "Coordinating" means to put various things "in order with each other", like the duty of the coordinator of a business project. There are seven coordinating conjunctions. When you write you can remember the seven by learning the word "fanboys". F for "for"; A for "and"; N for "nor"; B for "b"; O for "or"; Y for "yet"; S for "so".
The fused sentence:Peter likes to ride his favorite bay horse he also likes to drive his Jeep. This can also be fixed by using the coordinating conjunction and. Peter likes to ride his favorite bay horse and he also likes to drive his Jeep.
Fix by using a Semicolon:
The semicolon is strong enough to be used by itself when the two sentences have some connection between them. You don't use a capital letter after the semicolon. With the same fused sentence: Peter likes to ride his favorite bay horse he also likes to drive his Jeep. The fix would be: Peter likes to ride his favorite bay horse; he also likes to drive his Jeep.
Fix by using a subordinating conjunction:
Please excuse this grammatical word which also is useful. A "conjunction" joins two clauses, just like a train junction is where a lot of trains get together. "Subordinating" means that it is a word that joins two clauses putting one of them under (sub) the other in importance. There are a lot of subordinating conjunctions you can use. You will learn to use them in your writing.
Some are: after, although, as, because, before, even if, even though, if, in order that, once, provided that, rather than, since, so that, than, that, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, whether, while, why Peter likes to ride his favorite bay horse he also likes to drive his Jeep.
One way to fix the sentence would be to write: Peter likes to ride his favorite bay horse though he also likes to drive his Jeep. You have to write to learn how to use all the fixes to correct errors in your writing: adding a period and a capital letter, using a comma and a conjunction, joining the two main clauses with a semicolon, or subordinating one of the parts with a subordinate conjunction.
Sentence Connectors:
The previous section dealt with fixing fused or run-on sentences and sentence fragments. Many of the errors were fixed by using connectors such as "and", "but", "nevertheless" etc., as well as the use of the semicolon (;). However, connectors are not used only to fix errors. They also are necessary to improve the level of your writing.
Once you have mastered the basics of correct usage in written English, you will want to express yourself in increasingly complex ways. One of the best ways to improve your writing style is to use sentence connectors. Sentence connectors are used to express relationships between ideas and to combine sentences.
Simple connection:
and, also, and also, both...and, not only.... also, not only.... but, also, and.... too, and so, besides, in addition to, in addition, furthermore, moreover, additionally, besides
Alternative:
or, nor, either.... or, neither.... nor, rather than, instead, as an alternative, otherwise, rather
Cause and Effect:
so, for so...that, such...that, because, since, now that, as, in order, as long as, inasmuch, because of, due to, owing to, so that, in order that, if only because, therefore, consequently, as a consequence, as a result, thus, hence, accordingly,
Comparison:
as.... as, more.... than, less.... than, as (like), as if, as though, in the same way, just as, similarly, In contrast, unlike X, Y...., on the other hand,
Condition:
or else, whether.. or not, if, only if, unless, even if, whether, whether, or not, provided (that), in case, in the event (that), otherwise, in the event (that), anyway, anyhow,
Contrast:
but, yet, but still, but anyway, neither..... nor, although, even though, though, while, whereas, (despite, in spite of, regardless of), nevertheless, nonetheless, however, on the one hand, on the other hand
Emphasis:
even, indeed, in fact, of course, certainly,
Place: where, wherever
Time: after, before, when, while, since, as, until, as soon as, by the time, once, first, second, next, then, finally, previously, now, presently, next, still, meanwhile, subsequently, afterward,
The use of these connectors will add sophistication to your writing style. Each section below contains sentence connectors using similar sentences to show how the same idea can be expressed in a variety of manners. Once you have understood the use of these sentence connectors, take an example sentence of your own and write a number of sentences based on the examples to practice your own writing skills.
Some examples of sentence connectors which change or clarify the sense of the two similar sentences:
1. Food and drink prices in New York are very high. Renting an apartment in New York is very expensive.
Using a sentence connector (underlined): Food and drink prices in New York are very high, furthermore renting an apartment is very expensive.
Using a semicolon: Food and drink prices in New York are very high; renting an apartment is very expensive.
2. Life in New York is very expensive. Life in New York can be extremely exciting.
Using a sentence connector(underlined): Despite the fact that life in New York is very expensive, it can be extremely exciting.
Although life in New York is very expensive, it can be extremely exciting.
Life in New York is very expensive, but it can be extremely exciting.. Life in New York is very expensive. Many people love living in New York.
Using a sentence connector (underlined): Many people love living in New York; consequently, life in New York is very expensive.
Life in New York is very expensive, nevertheless, many people love living in New York.
This article may help you to write English. For more help go to:
http://www.BooksLibros.com/writing_2.htm
What Is an English Sentence? Improve Your Writing With Compound and Complex Sentences
Compound Saw
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