What makes up a sentence?

A sentence is the basic unit of written English communication.

A sentence is a collection of words assembled in such an order that they present a complete thought or
idea.

What is a sentence?

A sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark. The type of punctuation mark at
the end of the sentence indicates the kind of sentence.

• A declarative sentence, one that makes a statement, ends in a period.

• An interrogative sentence, one that asks a question, ends in a question mark.

• An exclamatory sentence, one that makes a forceful utterance, ends in an exclamation mark (or point).

Subject vs. Predicate

The subject is the noun (person, place, or thing) doing or being something.

The predicate contains the verb, which identifies what the subject is doing or being.

Kernel Sentences

Dog barks. Dancer moved.

Food smelled.

Music blared. Students worked.

Coach jumped.

Infant smiled.

Clauses

Sentences contain clauses.

• A clause contains a subject and a predicate.

• An independent clause expresses a complete thought.

• A simple sentence is an independent clause.

Simple Sentence

A simple sentence contains a single subject and a single predicate.

The man rode the bicycle.

A compound sentence is made up of two or more independent clauses combined using a coordinating
conjunction such as and, or, or but.

The man rode the bicycle, but he went the wrong way.

Complex Sentence

A complex sentence contains more than one subject and more than one verb.

A complex sentence joins an independent and a dependent clause.

Dependent Clause

A dependent, or subordinate, clause contains a subject and a predicate but does not express a complete
thought.

A dependent clause often begins with a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun that make the clause
unable to stand alone.

When Ronnie gets here,

If Denise comes to class late,

which I bought last weekend

Although I don't remember his name,

as the evening sun went down

Dependent vs. Independent

Although he likes to ride his bicycle, the man has not had the time to ride lately, and he has not found
anyone to ride with.

The teacher who lives next door to Rob is Mrs. Johnson.

Our dog will run away if the gate is left open.

Because the storm knocked out the power, school will be canceled on Thursday.

This is the homework assignment that you missed last week.

The movie was good; although, it was too long.

The moon shone on the ocean while the whales rose to the surface.

At the end of his class, Jim walked to his locker where the coach was waiting.

Parts of speech

Nouns

A noun is a person, place, or thing.

- Mark and Jennifer have a son.

-There are many people in this classroom who are missing assignments.

-I am ready for Spring Break.

-The man in the mirror was no one but himself.

-I have never been so upset in my life!

Pronouns

A word that replaces a noun.

Possessive : mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, whose, theirs

Demonstrative : this, that, these, those

Objective : me, you, him, her, it, us, whom, them

- They have never been so happy. -It was a really good day today.

Subjective: I, you, he, she, it, we, who, they

Reflexive: myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, themselves

Indefinite: anybody, everybody, nobody, somebody

The noun to which the pronoun refers is called the antecedent.

For example:

-Allen got off work at seven, then he went home.

He = pronoun
Allen = antecedent

Verbs

Action verbs express action, something that a person, animal, force of nature, or thing can do

Linking verbs, on the other hand, do not express action. Instead, they connect the subject of a verb to
additional information about the subject.

Any form of the verb "Be"

Am Were

Has

Been

Are being

is

-Marion was the first woman to become Vice President.

-There is a large group of students in the hallway.

- She danced all night long.

Verbs can be written in past, present, or future.

Past tense regular verbs you must add -ed.

Past tense irregular verbs can change completely.

Present tense verbs must have -ing added to the verb.

Verbs written in future tense can have "will" or "will be" in front of the verb.

Adverb

Adverbs are words that modify

*a verb (He drove slowly.

—How did he drive?

*an adjective (He drove a very fast car. – How fast was his car?)

* another adverb (She moved quite slowly down the aisle. ―How slowly did she move?)

Some adverbs can be identified by their characteristic "ly" suffix.

Answers questions such as: "how," "when, "where, "how much".

Adjectives describe the noun.

There are many good students in high school.

She was grateful for the interview.

I am a very intelligent person.

The basketball team was very adept in knowing the difficult plays.

The bluish-green sky was a beautiful sight to see.

Prepositions

A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. It may show direction or
position.

Some common prepositions are:

at, under, over, of, to, in, out, beneath, beyond, for, among, after, before, within, down, up,
during, without, with, outside, inside, beside, between, by, on, out, from, until, toward, throughout, across,
above, about, around.

• The book is on the table.

• The book is beneath the table.

• The book is leaning against the table.

• The book is beside the table.

• She held the book over the table.

• She read the book during class.

Conjunctions

A conjunction is a joiner, a word that connects (conjoins) parts of a sentence.

Coordinating Conjunctions: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

A subordinating conjunction introduces a dependent clause and indicates the nature of the relationship among
the independent clause(s) and the dependent clause(s).

Subordinating conjunctions are: after, although, as, because, before, how, if, once, since, than, that, though,
until, when, where, whether, and while.

Correlative conjunctions always appear –you use them in pairs to link equivalent sentence elements.
Correlative Conjunctions are:

both...and, either...or, neither...nor,

not only...but also, so...as, and whether...or

Interjections

An interjection is a word that shows strong emotion.

Examples: Wow !, Ouch!, Hurray!, and Oh no!

Interjections can really liven up a sentence. They help to add voice to your writing.