Sentence Definition and Examples in English Grammar
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
- Maggie is playing with a doll.
- I have completed my homework.
- Are children swimming?
- Tidy your study room immediately!
- What are you eating?
- The bakery opens at ten o’clock.
- John wrote a letter to his grandfather.
- What a beautiful picture!
- Shally loves English classes.
- Is this your pup?
Subject and Predicate
What is a Subject
A subject in a sentence is any object (noun) i.e. what or whom the sentence is about.
What is a Predicate
A predicate in a sentence tells about the subject (What action is being performed by the subject).
Examples
In the following sentences, the predicate is in italics, while the subject is highlighted in bold.
- The children are playing in the park.
- Peter is having his lunch.
| 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:
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Types of Predicate:
Examples:
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Subject Examples
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Predicate Examples
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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 = 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 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
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.
Complex sentences definition
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)