Sentences

What is a sentence?

A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense. It has a subject and a verb, begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.

The sun rises in the east. (complete sentence)

Rises in the east. (not a sentence, no subject)

Quick test: Ask “Who or what is this about?” and “What is said about it?” If both have an answer, it is a sentence.

Subject and predicate

Every sentence has two parts. The subject tells who or what the sentence is about. The predicate tells what the subject does or is.

Subject	Predicate
The little girl	sings a song.
My teacher	is very kind.
Birds	fly.

How to find them

Subject: Ask “Who?” or “What?” before the verb.
Predicate: Everything that says something about the subject, starting with the verb.

Object: Some sentences also have an object, the person or thing that receives the action. In “Ravi kicked the ball“, the ball is the object.

Kinds of sentences by purpose

Sentences are grouped by what they do. There are four kinds.

Kind	Job	Example	Ends with
Declarative (statement)	Tells a fact or opinion	The Ganga is a long river.	Full stop (.)
Interrogative (question)	Asks something	Where do you live?	Question mark (?)
Imperative (command)	Gives an order, request or advice	Please open the door.	Full stop (.) or (!)
Exclamatory	Shows strong feeling	What a lovely day it is!	Exclamation mark (!)

Remember: In an imperative sentence the subject “you” is usually hidden. In “Close the window”, the subject is understood: (You) close the window.

Kinds of sentences by structure

Sentences can also be grouped by how many clauses they have and how those clauses are joined.

Simple sentence

One main clause. It has one subject and one verb (or a pair of them).

The children played in the garden.

Compound sentence

Two or more main clauses of equal importance, joined by and, but, or, so, yet.

I wanted to go out, but it was raining.

Complex sentence

One main clause and at least one dependent (subordinate) clause, joined by words such as because, although, if, when, while, who, which.

We stayed home because it was raining.

Type	Clauses	Joined by
Simple	1 main clause	Not needed
Compound	2 or more main clauses	and, but, or, so
Complex	1 main + 1 or more dependent	because, if, when, although

Phrase and clause

A phrase is a group of words without a subject and verb of its own. A clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb.

	Phrase	Clause
Has subject + verb?	No	Yes
Example	in the morning	when the bell rang
Makes full sense alone?	No	Only a main clause does

Two kinds of clause

Main (independent) clause: makes complete sense alone. She smiled.
Subordinate (dependent) clause: cannot stand alone. when she saw him

Common mistakes

Sentence fragment

A fragment is a piece of a sentence that is missing a subject, a verb or a complete thought.

Fragment	Fixed
Because it was late.	We left because it was late.
Running down the road.	The boy was running down the road.

Run-on sentence

A run-on joins two main clauses with no proper connector or punctuation.

Run-on	Fixed
I like tea she likes coffee.	I like tea, but she likes coffee.
It was late we went home.	It was late, so we went home.

Check before you finish: Does every sentence have a subject, a verb, a complete thought, a capital letter and the right end mark?

Check yourself

Name the kind of each sentence by purpose. Answers are below.

Please sit down.
Have you finished your homework?
India is a large country.
How brave he is!
I was tired, so I slept early.
We waited until the rain stopped.

Show answers

1. Imperative 2. Interrogative 3. Declarative 4. Exclamatory 5. Compound (by structure) 6. Complex (by structure)