Basic Sentence Structure

This weeks grammar lesson starts with the basics: sentence structure.

There are four types of sentences: declarative, exclamatory, imperative, and interrogative.

A declarative sentence describes facts or information:
We should do the dishes.

An exclamatory sentence focuses on emotions:
Washing the plates was frustrating.

Imperative sentences issue instructions:
Do the dishes, please!

Interrogative sentences ask questions or request information:
Should we do the dishes?

A sentence is made up of two parts, a subject and a predicate. The subject is something (a person, thing, concept, etc.) that the sentence is about – usually what is described or performs an action. The predicate makes a statement, comment, or asks a question about the subject or an action initiated by it.

In this example, “dog” is the subject, and “barked loudly” is the predicate:

The dog barked loudly.

The central components of the subject and predicate are the simple subject and the simple predicate. In the previous example, “dog” is the simple subject, and “barked” is the simple predicate.

Compound subjects and predicates contain connecting works like “and, but, or or.”

A child and his parents got lost in the park.
The sailor put on his cap and untied his boat from the dock.

Predicates always contain a verb (a state of being, an assertion about the subject, or an indication of action). In the following sentence, the verb is ate:

Jeremy ate.

A verb can be preceded by an auxiliary which conveys a specific meaning (am, be, been, can, are, was, has, must…).

They are eating chocolate.
They have been eating chocolate.

Typically, the subject of a sentence is a noun. Nouns name or classify activities, places, things, concepts, and people. Carpet is a noun.

The carpet is red.

A pronoun can substitute a noun, and the noun it substitutes is called its antecedent.

It is red.

“It” is a pronoun, substituting for the antecedent “carpet”. Indefinite pronouns, such as anybody, everybody, and somebody, require no antecedents. Personal pronouns include I, he, she, they, we, and the pronoun who.

That’s enough for grammar for now. Make sure you can answer the following questions:

1. What are the four types of sentences?
2. What is a predicate?
3. What is a verb?
4. What is a noun?
5. What is a pronoun?
6. What are auxiliaries?