Sentence Structures
Sentence Structures
Sentence Structures
Although there is in the subject position of a sentence, it is not the subject. There has no meaning. It only
shows that the subject exists. The real subject of the sentence comes after there is or there are, and the
verb (is or are) must agree with the real subject.
More than one noun can come after there + be. If the first noun phrase is singular, use there is:
There’s a cat and two dogs at my house.
Exercise 5.1
Write sentences using There + be.
Exercise 5.2
Write sentences with the words given. Use there is or there are. Don’t forget to add articles and
prepositions where needed.
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Subject-Verb Agreement
Subject-verb agreement when using there has several rules:
When using there is or there are many sentences will contain prepositional phrases of place.
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Exercise 5.3
Write There are / There is sentences using prepositional phrases of place and the subjects from the list
below.
Example: many colorful fish There are many colorful fish in the pond.
1. __________________________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________________________________
4. __________________________________________________________________________
5. __________________________________________________________________________
Word Order
When writing sentences in English, there are several common “word orders” that can be used. One of the
most common is below.
Exercise 5.4
Put the scrambled sentences below into the word order above.
Note: Not every sentence will have a What, Where and When part.
2. in the math building / are studying / the students /for the test
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
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4. was stolen / this morning / his new BMW / from the parking lot
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Exercise 5.5
Now write six sentences (on a separate sheet of paper) using your own words. Use the same word order
as the exercise above.
A simple sentence has a subject and one main verb. It may also contain a describing phrase (or
complement).
The subject is the noun or pronoun that identifies the person place or thing the sentence is about. The
verb tells the action done by the subject or explains its condition.
Subject Verb
She studies.
He runs.
My dog is sleeping.
My dog and cat are fighting.
A sentence may also have a describing phrase (or complement), but it does not have to have one. A
describing phrase or complement gives additional information about the subject or verb.
Following are examples of simple sentences with complements. Note that the complements or phrases
can function as pronouns, adjectives, nouns, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, or a combination of descriptive
phrases.
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Exercise 5.6
Look at the sentences below and write S, V, or C above the subjects, verbs, and complements.
Example: S V C
My car is a Daewoo Leganza.
1. My hometown is Kyeongju.
2. Most of my classes are in English.
3. Seoul has over 12 million people living there.
4. Kyeongju is one of the many historical centers of Korea.
5. Happiness is a hike in the mountains.
6. The East Sea of Korea is a beautiful area.
7. Every one of the students is a delight to work with.
8. Chinese is a difficult language to learn to read and write.
9. Life is a bowl of cherries.
10. I am going to sleep.
Exercise 5.7
Write sentences below using each one of the complement structures above.
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________________________
6. _________________________________________________________________________
7. _________________________________________________________________________
8. _________________________________________________________________________
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Subject-Verb Agreement
A singular subject must be followed by a singular verb, and a plural subject must be followed by a plural
verb. This rule is called subject-verb agreement.
Each and every (when used with a singular noun) should be followed singular noun.
It is difficult sometimes to decide if a subject is singular or plural. This is especially true when there is
additional information following the subject, but before the verb. The additional information is often
written in a prepositional phrase.
A prepositional phrase connects a subject to the rest of the sentence. It is a group of words that begins
with a preposition and ends with a noun. A prepositional phrase usually tells where, when, how, or why.
Thus a prepositional phrase works as an adverb or adjective.
A prepositional phrase often comes after the subject of a sentence, but before the verb. The phrase is not
a part of the subject, so it should not be used to determine the form of the verb.
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There are times when you will need to use the noun or pronoun in the prepositional phrase to determine
the correct verb form. If the noun in the prepositional phrase is a non-count noun, you should use a
singular verb. If the noun in a prepositional phrase plural, use a plural verb. If it is a singular noun, use a
singular verb.
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Exercise 5.8
Fill in the blanks in the following sentences. Use the correct form of the verb in parenthesis.
1. The number of students at the university _______ (have) increased this year.
2. A lot of the problems on the test _______ (be) impossible to solve.
3. Most of my friends _______ (be) went home for the holidays.
4. Neither of my parents _______ (have) studied at university.
5. A majority of the voters _______ (be) not going to vote for him.
6. None of them _______(be) coming to the party tonight.
7. Each of them _______ (have) their own ideas.
8. The price of the pencils _______(be) 1000 won.
9. Something _______(need) to be done about the problems.
10. None of the coffee _______ (be) left.
Exercise 5.9
Write ten sentences of your own (on a separate sheet of paper) following the rules explained above.
Dependent Clauses
An independent clause is a complete sentence. It expresses a complete thought and can stand alone. A
dependent clause is not a complete sentence. It may have a subject and a verb, but it does not express a
complete thought. It is a sentence fragment because it can not stand alone. When a sequence word or
other transition word such as so or because is added to a sentence it becomes a dependent clause.
In order to form a complete sentence or thought, a dependent clause must be joined to an independent
clause. Use a comma after the dependent clause if it comes at the beginning of a sentence. Do not use a
comma if the dependent clause comes at the end of the sentence.
When writing about the sequence of events, dependent and independent clauses can be joined together
with sequence words to form complete thoughts. Some common sequence and transition words are
before, after, as soon as, when, but, so, and because.
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Exercise 5.10
Fill in the blanks in the following paragraph with before, after, as soon as, when, because, but, or so.
Some of the words are used more than once.
The children of Mrs. Peterson’s class went on a field trip to the city’s natural history
museum. __________ they could go however, they had to give the principle their permission
slips that their parents had signed. __________ collecting all the slips, the children got on the
bus. Many of the children had never been to a museum ________ they were very excited
about the outing. The drive to the museum took a long time __________ they had fun. Mrs.
Peterson led the children in singing and playing games __________ time went by quickly.
__________ they arrived at the museum, the group went straight to the dinosaur section.
They went to this section first __________ they had been studying dinosaurs in class.
____________ the children saw the display of dinosaur bones, they began asking the museum
guide questions. __________ the outing was very informative all the children had a great
time.
Exercise 5.11
Look at the sentence fragments below and rewrite them to form complete sentences. Be sure to use
correct punctuation and capitalization.
1. before I go to sleep I
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
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Exercise 5.12
Write more sentences containing a dependent and independent clause using these sequence words:
before, after, as soon as, so, because, and when.
Before
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
After
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
When
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
So
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Because
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
But
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
As soon as
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
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Exercise 5.13
Each of the following sentence fragments need something added to make them complete: add a
subject, verb, or complement. Rewrite the sentences using correct capitalization and punctuation.
1. I apartment
________________________________________________________________________
3. works hard
________________________________________________________________________
4. bob tall
________________________________________________________________________
5. my university is
________________________________________________________________________
8. don’t late
_______________________________________________________________________
10. She is
_______________________________________________________________________
12. on weekends
_______________________________________________________________
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Descriptive Sentences
A common sentence structure for describing the characteristics or qualities of something is:
To put variety in your writing you can also write the characteristic or quality first, use the preposition of,
and change the verb have to be. Then you must begin the sentence with the.
Exercise 5.14
Rewrite the following sentences using the structure in Example 2.
Exercise 5.15
Choose three familiar objects and write sentences like the example above.
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
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Many characteristics of an object can be described using this structure. These characteristics include:
shape, size, color, weight, height, width, length, thickness, and texture.
Exercise 5.17
Rewrite each of the sentences below by using the descriptive structure in the example.
Exercise 5.18
Write four sentences describing the same object. Use both sentence structures from he previous
exercise.
1a. _______________________________________________________________________
1b. _______________________________________________________________________
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2a. _______________________________________________________________________
2b. _______________________________________________________________________
3a. _______________________________________________________________________
3b. _______________________________________________________________________
4a. _______________________________________________________________________
4b. _______________________________________________________________________
Chopsticks are common objects. We find them everywhere, usually in pairs. A single
chopstick is usually made of wood or steel. They are small in size. The length of a
chopstick is about fifteen centimeters. It can be round or square in shape. It is also tapered from
one end to the other. The color of a chopstick is often tan or silver, but could be any color. A
chopstick is very light in weight. Sometimes we find a pair of chopsticks in a paper wrapper.
Exercise 5.19
On a separate piece of paper, write a paragraph to describe a common object. Use the paragraph above
as a model and try to describe all the characteristics of the object using both sentence structures.
Exercise 5.20
The descriptive paragraph below has mistakes. Rewrite the paragraph on a separate piece of paper and
correct the mistakes. Use There are/There is when possible and vary the sentence structures (word
order).
My university is beautiful. It have a large lake and two small pond on the campus. The lake is
round in shape. The pond are square. One pond has a large fountain. Around the pond are garden.
One of the gardens has three rose bush and two large magnolia trees. They smell wonderful! Next to
the lake is a seating area for students. It has a bench and many chairs. The bench is hard, but the
chairs are very soft and comfortable. There are a covered area. It is to protect the students from the
sun and the rain. It is large and brown. The campus also has a very large grassy area. The grass is
soft and green. The beautiful lake, ponds and grassy area are where the students like to study and
spend time with their friends.
Exercise 5.21
Now write a paragraph (on a separate sheet of paper) about your own school (or workplace). What is it
like? Start with a topic sentence like the one in the paragraph above. Use There are/ There is when
possible and vary the sentence structures (word order).
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