We know that the sentence is everything in English. While writing a letter or a paragraph, we need a couple of sentences linked to each other properly. In this section, we will learn about sentences.
Table of Contents
Definition of Sentence
What is a sentence?
A sentence is the largest grammatical unit. It consists of a subject, a verb, and an object. A sentence is a word or a group of words that have a complete sense by giving a statement, asking a question, or exclaiming.
Structurally, a simple sentence is a group of words that contains two parts.
- a subject
- a predicate
Subject: The subject is a word or a group of words that say who or what does something.
Predicate: The predicate is the part of the sentence that says something about the action of the subject.
Generally, there is always a subject and predicate in the sentence.
The predicate may have
a. head word (finite verb) only
The structure of such sentence is:
| Subject | Predicate (finite verb only) |
| Shyamal | goes |
| He | plays |
b. head word (finite verb)+ adjunct (complement/object/preposition)
The structure of the sentence is:
| Subject | Predicate (finite verb+adjunct) |
| She | reads a book |
| Mita | lives in a town |
Examples of Sentences
A sentence may consist of one or more words. The one-word sentences are- In exclamations –
What! Good!
Others – Impossible, yes, what?
The sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.
More examples of sentences:–
a. Where do you live?
b. How old are you?
c. They go to school every day in the morning.
Functionally types of sentences:
Functionally, sentences are four types.
1. Declarative sentence (statement)
2. Interrogative sentence (questions)
3. Imperative sentence (commands)
4. Exclamatory sentence (exclamation)
1. Declarative sentence:
Declarative sentences are statements. These sentences make simple statements. They usually end with a period (i.e. a full stop).
The structure of a statement is as follows:
Subject + verb + other words
For examples,
a. Rahul eats rice in the afternoon.
b. He plays football in the field.
There are two types of Declarative/Assertive sentences.
a. Affirmative
b. Negative
look at the following table –
| Sl No. | Affirmative | Negative |
| 1 | He reads the book. | He does not read the book. |
| 2 | I go to school. | I do not go to school. |
| 3 | Ram eats the bread. | Ram does not eat the bread. |
2. Interrogative sentence (question):
Interrogative sentences ask questions. These sentences must end with a question mark(?).
Formation of Interrogatives:-
a. A statement with an auxiliary verb is made interrogative by changing the position of the subject and verb.
| Statements | Questions |
| Piyali is good. | Is Piyali good? |
| He is honest. | Is he honest? |
b. A statement with a main verb in simple present tense and simple past tense is made interrogative by introducing ‘do’ and it places at the beginning of a question.
| Statements | Questions |
| They eat rice. | Do they eat rice? |
| I go to market. | Do I go to market? |
3. Imperative sentence (command):
An imperative sentence expresses a command/ order/ request or suggestion. These sentences end with a full stop (.) or sometimes it ends with an exclamation mark (!).
In an imperative sentence usually, there is no subject, because the subject is the second person pronoun ‘YOU‘ which is normally unexpressed.
For examples –
a. Come here. (you come here.)
b. Go there. (you go there.)
c. Do not do this work. (you do not do this work.)
Types of Imperative sentences:-
There are two types of Imperative sentences.
a. Affirmative
b. Negative
Look at the following examples:
| Affirmative | Negative |
| Come here. | Don’t come here. |
| Switch off the light. | Do not switch off the light. |
An imperative sentence is used to indicate request, words like please, kindly are to be added.
Such as –
a. Please open the window.
b. Please tell me your name.
4. Exclamatory sentence (exclamation):
Exclamatory sentences express a variety of emotions. These emotions may be sudden surprise, anger, pain, delight, disgust, etc.
The structure of the exclamatory sentence is –
👉 What + adjective + noun + other words
what is stupid you are!
👉 How+ adjective/adverb+subject+verb
How fat the woman is!
👉 Alas+clause
Alas, he is no more.
Three types of sentence structure:
Sentences are divided into three types according to their structure
1. Simple sentence
2. Complex sentence
3. Compound sentence
1. Simple sentence:
A simple sentence is one that contents only one subject and one finite verb. It may contain qualifying words, objects for the subject, and verbs also. But the important thing is that a simple sentence has only one subject and one finite verb.
For examples:-
a. I play cricket. (‘play’- one verb)
b. Payel goes to school. (‘goes’ – one verb)
c. They eat rice. (‘eats’ – one verb)
2. Complex sentence:
A complex sentence is one in which there is only one principal clause with one or more subordinate or dependent clauses. The total number of clauses will be the same as the total number of finite verbs in the sentence.
Such as –
a. He said that he was busy.
This sentence has two finite verbs (said, was), so it has two clauses.
He said – principal clause
that he was busy – subordinate noun clause
More examples:-
b. They said that they had done the project.
c. I know that Kavita is a good girl.
3. Compound sentence:
A compound sentence must have two or more main (principal) clauses with or without any subordinate clause. The principal clause/main clause is joined together by the coordinating conjunctions.
The coordinating conjunctions are: and, or, however, therefore, for, still, but, then, so, etc.
Look at the following examples:
a. He is poor but he is happy.
Here, ( He is poor — principal clause )
( but — Linker )
( he is happy — principal clause )
b. I called the man but the man did not come.
Here, ( I called the man — principle clause )
(but — Linker )
(the man did not come — principle clause )
c. He is ill yet he will play the cricket match.
Here, ( He is ill — principle clause )
( yet — Linker )
( he will play the cricket match )
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