The Sentence

THE SENTENCE
CONTENTS
○ Sentence definition and constituents

○ Sentence patterns
○ Sentence structures
○ Sentence types
THE SENTENCE: DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS
○ Clause: A group of words which forms a grammatical
unit and which contains a subject and a finite verb
● Because I was late, they went without me.
➔ Independent and dependent clauses
○ Phrase: A group of words which forms a grammatical
unit but which does not contain a subject and a finite
verb
● I like her expensive new car.
● George hates working in the garden.
○ Noun phrases, prepositional phrases, verb phrases,
adjective phrases, adverbial phrases
○ Sentence: a grammatically complete unit capable of

standing alone on its own and semantically
independent. Normally a sentence contains an
independent clause with a finite verb.
○ Simple sentence: a sentence with only one clause
● I like milk.
○ Compound/Complex sentence: a sentence with two
or more than two clauses
● He is a small boy but he is very strong.
● When it rained, we went inside.
○ Subject: generally the noun, pronoun or noun
phrase which
● typically precedes the main verb and is most closely
related to it
● determines concord (agreement)
● refers to something about which a statement is made in
the rest of the sentence
● My mother is beautiful.
○ Predicate: part of the sentence which
○ states/asserts something about the subject
○ usually consists of the finite verb, object,
complement, and adverbial
○ Verb: a word that is usually one of the main parts of a
sentence and that expresses an action, an occurrence,
or a state of being
● Action verbs
● State verbs
○ Finite verb: a form of a verb that is related to the
subject in PERSON and/or NUMBER, and which
shows TENSES.
○ Non-finite verb???
E.g.: We want
She wants to leave.
○ I wanted
finite verb forms Non-finite verb forms
VERBS
○ Transitive verbs
● He kicked a small stone.
● Did you enjoy the concert?
● I’ll send you a post card.
● I’ll send a post card to you.
● She said that she would be late.
○ Intransitive verbs
● I can’t sleep.
● The thief escaped.
○ Transitive and intransitive
● Miss Reynolds smiled and left.
● Miss Reynolds smiled her bright smile and left the
room.
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
○ Object: a noun, pronoun or noun phrase which goes
after the (transitive) verb, affected by the action
of the verb
I love dogs.
○ Direct object vs. Indirect object
My mom gave me some money.
VERBS
○ Linking verbs
● Anna became my best friend.
● I am a student.
● Bill seems to have no friends.
○ Complement: part of the sentence which follows the
verb and which thus completes the sentence
○ Subject complement: one linked to a subject by be
or a linking verb
She is a doctor.
○ Object complement: one linked to an object
● We made her the chairperson.
BASIC SENTENCE PATTERNS
Pattern 1
S + Vi
S + Vi + particle
S + Vi + adverbial phrase
● The phone rang.

● He came in.
● The phone rang loudly.
Pattern 2
S + Vl + SC
● Frank is clever.
● Frank is a teacher.
○ The complement may be
● An adjective
● A noun
● An adjective + noun
● A pronoun
● An adverb of place or time
● A prepositional phrase
○ Pattern 3
S + Vt + DO
S + Vt + DO + to/for + IO
● My sister answered the phone.

● They introduced me to the professor.
○ The Direct Object may be:
● A noun
● A pronoun
● A reflexive pronoun
● An infinitive
● An –ing form
○ Pattern 4
S + Vt + IO+ DO
S + Vt + DO+ to/for + IO
S + Vt + IO
● They gave him a watch.
● They gave a watch to him.
● They brought me some water.

● They brought some water for me.
● I’ll tell you soon.
● I’ll post the letter for you.

○ Pattern 5
S + Vt + DO + OC
● They appointed him chairman.

● He drove me crazy.
○ They gave him a watch.
○ They made him chairman.
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
○Adverbials: any word, phrase, or clause that
functions like an adverb
➔ an adverb is a single-word adverbial
○ Adjuncts: part of the basic structure of the sentence,
modifying the verb, expressing time, manner, place,
etc.
We went to the concert yesterday evening.
○ Conjuncts: not part of the basic structure of the
sentence, connecting ideas
Altogether it was a happy week.
○ Disjuncts: (sentential adverbs) showing speaker’s
attitude or evaluating what is said in the rest of the
sentence
Naturally, I paid for my own meal.
BASIC WORD ORDER
subject verb group (predicate)
group
S V-finite O C Adv
manner place time
I bought a hat yesterday.
The ran home.

children
The taxi shouted at me angrily when I sat
driver down.
We ate our in silence.
meal
The song made them upset.
She was my for one
teacher semester.
SENTENCE STRUCTURES
Based on WORD ORDER
1. Statements (Declarative Sentences)
An utterance which describes a state of affairs, action,

feeling or belief, etc.
● It’s very cold here in winter.
● I don’t think she looks very well.
2. Questions (Interrogative Sentences)

An utterance which asks for an expression of fact,
opinion, belief, etc.
● Can she come?
● What’s your name?
SENTENCE STRUCTURES
3. Commands (Imperative Sentences)

An utterance which tells other people what to do
● Be seated, please.
4. Exclamations (Exclamatory Sentences)

An utterance which may not have the structure of a
full sentence and which shows strong emotions
● How clever she is!
● What a meal!
SIMPLE SENTENCES
○ A sentence which contains only one clause
I like milk.
Mary and I went to the concert together.
He is a good man but sometimes misbehaves.
○ A sentence which contains only one predicate
21
COMPOUND SENTENCES
A sentence which contains two or more than two
independent clauses joined by
○ A semi-colon
My father is a doctor; my mother is a nurse.

○ A colon
I don’t want to go: it’s raining outside.

○ A coordinating conjunction (coordinator)
BOYFANS
He is a small boy, but he is very strong.
○ A connecting adverb
He is a small boy; however, he is very strong.

○ Correlative conjunctions
These headlines both mystified and infuriated him.

22
COMPLEX SENTENCES
A sentence which contains one or more
dependent clauses (including the subordinating
conjunction / subordinator) in addition to its
independent clause
When it rained, we went inside.
If you cannot have what you like, you had better like
what you have.
Types of dependent clauses in complex
sentences
○ Nominal clauses (noun clauses)
○ Adjectival clauses (adjective/ relative clauses)
○ Adverbial clauses (adverb clauses)
23
REVISION
○ What is a sentence?
○ What basic constituents does a sentence consist
of?
○ How many sentence patterns are there? What
are they?
○ How many sentence structures are there? What
are they?
○ How many sentence types are there? What are
they?
TRUE OR FALSE?
○ A compound sentence is a sentence with at least two
clauses.
○ A finite verb shows its agreement with the sentence
subject.
○ SONGS in “I love singing songs” is the direct object.
○ A disjunct is part of the basic structure of a sentence.
○ A complement is optional, i.e. it can be left out without
changing the structure and the meaning of a sentence.
○ In a predicate, there always has to be a verb and an
object.
○ SMELLED in “He smelled the food carefully” is a
linking verb.
○ “Driving over long distances always exhausts me” is a
simple sentence.

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THE SENTENCE

○ Sentence definition and constituents

○ Sentence: a grammatically complete unit capable of

● The phone rang.

● My sister answered the phone.

● They brought me some water.

● I’ll tell you soon.

● I’ll post the letter for you.

● They appointed him chairman.

The ran home.

An utterance which describes a state of affairs, action,

2. Questions (Interrogative Sentences)

3. Commands (Imperative Sentences)

4. Exclamations (Exclamatory Sentences)

My father is a doctor; my mother is a nurse.

I don’t want to go: it’s raining outside.

He is a small boy; however, he is very strong.

These headlines both mystified and infuriated him.

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