Kinds of Sentences
Kinds of Sentences: Sentences in English are categorized into four types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. Each type serves a unique purpose, helping to express statements, ask questions, give commands, or show emotions. Understanding sentence types enhances writing clarity and communication skills.
what is sentence । Sentence Definition?
A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense. Each sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, a question mark, or an exclamation mark.
What sentence examples
- The sky is clear today. (Declarative)
- Can you help me with this? (Interrogative)
- Finish your homework now. (Imperative)
- What an amazing concert! (Exclamatory)
- She enjoys reading mystery novels. (Declarative)
- Did you see the new movie? (Interrogative)
- Please pass the salt. (Imperative)
- That’s the best cake I’ve ever tasted! (Exclamatory)
- The train arrives at 8 AM. (Declarative)
- How do I get to the library? (Interrogative)
Subject and Predicate
What is a Subject
The subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that acts or is being described. It typically comes at the beginning of a sentence and tells us who or what the sentence is about.
- The cat sleeps on the chair.
- John enjoys playing soccer.
- The car needs a repair.
- She finished the assignment early.
- My friends are going to the concert.
- The book was on the table.
- We love Italian food.
What is a Predicate
The predicate of a sentence explains what the subject does or describes something about the subject. It includes the verb and everything that follows, providing important information about the action or state of the subject.
- The dog barked loudly.
- My sister is studying for her exams.
- The sun sets in the west.
- The flowers are blooming beautifully.
- They played soccer after school.
- The teacher explained the lesson clearly.
- John went to the grocery store.
- We enjoy watching movies.
- The car needs a new tire.
- She is reading a book.
Subject VS Predicate |
|
| Subject | Predicate |
| Part of the sentence that tells what or whom the sentence is about | Part of the sentence that tells what the subject in the sentence is doing |
| The subject can only be an object i.e. noun or pronoun | The predicate will contain verbs to tell what the subject is doing. |
Types of Subject:
Examples:
|
Types of Predicate:
Examples:
|
Subject Examples
|
Predicate Examples
|
Types of sentence structure
👉 Every sentence should make sense.
To make sense, a sentence must contain a subject and a verb. A subject is a thing or a person and a verb is a doing or an action word. ✔
Examples
The tea is hot.
Subject: tea / Verb: is
what is a sentence structure
Subject + Verb+ Object = Sentence
The four basic sentence structures are the:
- Simple: A sentence with only one independent clause.
- Compound: Two (or more) simple sentences joined by a conjunction or an appropriate mark of punctuation.
- Complex: A sentence that contains an independent clause (or main clause) and at least one dependent clause.
- Compound-complex: A sentence with two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.
what is a simple sentence?
A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb, and it may also have an object and modifiers. However, it contains only one independent clause.
Key: Yellow, bold = subject; green underline = verb, blue, italics = object, pink, regular font =prepositional phrase
simple sentence example :
- She wrote.
- She completed her literature review.
- He organized his sources by theme.
- They studied APA rules for many hours.
what is a compound sentence?
A compound sentence contains at least two independent clauses. These two independent clauses can be combined with a comma and a coordinating conjunction or with a semicolon.
Key: independent clause , bold; comma or semicolon, regular font; coordinating conjunction = underlined
compound sentence structure
what is compound sentence example
- She completed her literature review, and she created her reference list.
- He organized his sources by theme; then, he updated his reference list.
- They studied APA rules for many hours, but they realized there was still much to learn.
Using some compound sentences in writing allows for more sentence variety.
what is complex sentence
A complex sentence contains at least one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. Dependent clauses can refer to the subject (who, which) the sequence/time (since, while), or the causal elements (because, if) of the independent clause.
If a sentence begins with a dependent clause, note the comma after this clause. If, on the other hand, the sentence begins with an independent clause, there is not a comma separating the two clauses.
Key: independent clause , bold; comma , regular font; dependent clause = italics
example of complex sentences
- Although she completed her literature review, she still needed to work on her methods section.
- Note the comma in this sentence because it begins with a dependent clause.
- Because he organized his sources by theme, it was easier for his readers to follow.
- Note the comma in this sentence because it begins with a dependent clause.
- They studied APA rules for many hours as they were so interesting.
- Note that there is no comma in this sentence because it begins with an independent clause.
- Using some complex sentences in writing allows for more sentence variety.
Compound-Complex Sentence
Sentence types can also be combined. A compound-complex sentence contains at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.
Key: independent clause , bold; comma or semicolon , regular font; coordinating conjunction = underlined; dependent clause = italics
- She completed her literature review, but she still needs to work on her methods section even though she finished her methods course last semester.
- Although he organized his sources by theme, he decided to arrange them chronologically, and he carefully followed the MEAL plan for organization.
- With pizza and soda at hand, they studied APA rules for many hours, and they decided that writing in APA made sense because it was clear, concise, and objective.
- Using some complex-compound sentences in writing allows for more sentence variety.
- Pay close attention to comma usage in complex-compound sentences so that the reader is easily able to follow the intended meaning.
Functional Types of Sentences
- Declarative: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” (Mark Twain)
- Interrogative: “But what is the difference between literature and journalism? Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.” (Oscar Wilde)
- Imperative: “Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.” (Mark Twain)
- Exclamatory: “To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!” (H. L. Mencken)