Sentences

Sam An Teng


Sentence is a group of words that consists of at least one subject and one verb, and expresses a complete thought. 

A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with an ending punctuations (full-stop, question mark, or exclamation mark).

For examples,

• I go to school very day.
• He likes apple.
• Open the book! [the hidden subject is "You"]

However, the examples below are not sentences.

• Last month, took a flight to Korea. [No subject.]
• She interested in book. [Lack of verb.]
• Who is rich. [It is just a clause which doesn't have complete thought.]
• On the table. [It is just a phrase; no subject and verb.]

Sentence elements

A sentence has five important elements. 

Subject 

Subject performs the action or tells what the sentence is about; for examples,

• Bopha studies English.
• Bopha and Bunna choose the same major at school.

Verb

Verb shows either action or state of the subject. A short sentence contains only a subject and a verb. For examples,

• She cries.
• They learn and practice everyday.

Object

object can be direct object, indirect object, and object of preposition (which will be discussed in adverbial). 

Direct object -- direct object receives the action of the verb; for examples,

• He reads a book.
• I support what he has said.

Indirect object -- indirect object receives the direct object; for examples,

• His boss assigns him new roles.
• The woman brought him a cup of tea.

Complement

There are two kinds of complements: subject complement and object complement.

Subject complement -- complete the meaning of subject. Subject complement can be adjective (which is called predicate adjective) or noun (which is called predicate noun or predicate nominative). For examples,

• He looks unhappy.
• They are accountants.

Object complement -- complete the meaning of the object; for examples,

• I painted my room red.
• They appointed him representative.

Adverbial

adverbial is simple adverb, adverb phrase, or a group of words function as adverb. For examples,

• He thinks optimistically.
• They were at at hospital.

Types of sentences

There are four types of sentences; i.e.,

declarative 

declarative sentences are either positive or negative sentence. It is also called statement. For examples,

• The phone need further software development.
• The customers are not satisfied with some features of its software.

interrogative

Interrogative sentences are question. For examples,

• Are you a student?
• Where are you staying now?

imperative

Imperative sentences are orders or commands. The subject of imperative sentence is "You". For examples,

Open the book.

Don't park your car over there.

Finish your homework.

exclamatory

exclamatory sentences are statement showing surprise or exclamation; for examples,

• What a lovely day!
• Hurry up! 
• That sounds fantastic!
• I can't believe you said that!