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The Sentence

The document discusses different types of sentences including declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative sentences. It also covers positive and negative sentences as well as active and passive sentences.

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Imamul Haramain
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32 views3 pages

The Sentence

The document discusses different types of sentences including declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative sentences. It also covers positive and negative sentences as well as active and passive sentences.

Uploaded by

Imamul Haramain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Sentence

Grammar deals with the rules for combining words into larger units. The largest unit that is
described in grammar is normally the sentence.

 It is sometimes said that a sentence expresses a complete thought.


 It is a sentence as a string of words beginning with a capital (upper case) letter and ending
with a full stop (period)
 Combinations of words that conform to those grammaical patterns.

A. Sentence types
There are four major types of sentences:
1. Declaratives (or declarative sentences)
 She was attracted to an open-air job.
 The new proposals have galvanized the normally disparate community into a potent
fighting force.

2. Interrogatives (or interrogative sentences)


 Do you have internet access at home?
 Where will you be going for your holiday?

3. Imperatives (or imperative sentences)


 Open the door for me.
 Take a seat.

4. Exclamatives (or exclamative sentences)


 How well you look!
 What a good friend you are!

These four sentence types differ in their form. They correspond in general to four major uses:
1. Statements are used chiefly to convey information.
2. Questions are used chiefly to request information.
3. Directives are used chiefly to request action.
4. Exclamations are used chiefly to express strong feeling.

Exercise
Identify whether each sentence below is declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamative.
1. Move right to the front of the bus.
2. What have you got to say for yourself?
3. What a good time we had!
4. How will they find their way to the station?
5. How much weight you’ve lost!
6. How much does it cost?
7. It’s been nice meeting you.
8. Will your parents be coming with you?
9. If it doesn’t rain, I’ll see you tonight.
10. Pass the bottle, please.
11. Take it!
12. How can I help?

B. Positive and negative sentences


Sentences are either positive or negative. If an auxiliary (‘helping’) verb is present, we can
usually change a positive sentence into a negative sentence by inserting not or n’t after the
auxiliary. In the following examples, the auxiliaries are has, is, and can:

Positive : Nancy has been working here for over a year.


Negative : Nancy has not been working here for over a year.
Positive : Dan is paying for the meal.
Negative : Dan isn’t paying for the meal.
Positive : I can tell the difference.
Negative : I can’t tell the difference.

The rules for inserting not and n’t are somewhat complicated.
A sentence may be negative because of some other negative word:
 She never had a secretary.
 Nobody talked to us.
 This is no ordinary painting.

Exercise
Make the positive sentences below negative and the negative sentences positive.
1. We accept credit cards.
2. I’m taking my car to work today.
3. The army is different from the police force.
4. The elders of the ruling party were not shocked at the election results.
5. Nobody can tell the difference.
6. The country has changed drastically.
7. Diet and longevity don’t seem to be linked.
8. Do not hold your breath.
9. Africa will not find it as easy as America to apply a successful programme.
10. He does not fully understand their objections.
C. Active and passive sentences
Sentences are either active or passive. We can often choose whether to make a sentence active
or passive. The choice involves differences in position and differences in the form of the verb:
Active : Charles Dickens wrote many novels.
Passive : Many novels were written by Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens and many novels are at opposite ends of the two sentences. In the passive
sentence by comes before Charles Dickens, and the active wrote corresponds to the longer were
written.

Here are two further examples of pairs of active and passive sentences:
Active : Manchester United beat Liverpool at Old Trafford.
Passive : Liverpool were beaten by Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Active : The Rambert Dance Company won the country’s largest arts prize, the Prudential
Award.
Passive : The country’s largest arts prize, the Prudential Award, was won by the Rambert
Dance Company.

Actives are far more numerous than passives. Their relative frequency varies with register. For
example, passives tend to be heavily used in formal scientific writing.
The example sentences in the chapters that follow will generally be active rather than passive.

Exercise
Identify whether each sentence below is active or passive.
1. The Prime Minister postponed a press briefing last night.
2. Five demonstrators were shot before the meeting.
3. The confession was obtained in breach of the police codes of practice.
4. Most of the tests on the Roman treasure have been carried out at the Institute of
Archaeology by one of its honorary research associates.
5. The astronomers expect to discover life on another planet.
6. The dispute changed the whole of world history.
7. A sharp fall in profits is being predicted.
8. Their hopes have been dashed once again.
9. A developer has recently obtained permission to turn some 160 acres of farmland into a
golf course.
10. The motion was defeated by a large majority.

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