English Grammar: Sentence Structure

Study Notes

A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought.
A sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, a question mark, or an exclamation mark.
A sentence must contain a subject and a finite verb.

There are four types of sentences in English: statements, questions, exclamations, and commands.
Statements supply information.
Questions ask for information.
Exclamations express emotions such as surprise, fear, alarm, or anger.
Commands are used to give orders or instructions.

Sentences are also classified as simple, compound, and complex sentences.
Simple sentences have one finite verb and deal with one idea.
Compound sentences have two or more finite verbs and may be made up of two or more simple sentences joined by a co-ordinating conjunction.
Complex sentences contain one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses, joined by subordinating conjunctions.

A sentence can be divided into a subject and a predicate.
The subject reflects who or what we are talking about.
The predicate is the rest of the sentence and expands on the subject.
The predicate can be further divided into verb, direct object, and indirect object.

Punctuation marks make written text easier to read and understand.
Capital letters are used to start sentences, for proper nouns and proper adjectives, and for main words in titles of books, films, or plays.
Full stops are used to indicate the end of a sentence and after certain abbreviations.
Commas are used to separate words or phrases in a list, to indicate where one phrase or clause ends and another begins, and to separate additional information from the rest of the sentence.
Semi-colons are used to separate two equally important, related or parallel ideas, to indicate opposite ideas, and to join two main clauses where there is no conjunction.
Colons are used to indicate that a list, an explanation, or an amplification is about to follow.