Structures of Sentences PDF

Structures of Sentences All sentences contain the same basic elements: a subject and a verb The subject is who or what the sentence is about; the verb describes the subjects’s action or condition. However, these elements, subjects and verbs, can be combined in di erent ways. These are di erent...

Structures of Sentences All sentences contain the same basic elements: a subject and a verb The subject is who or what the sentence is about; the verb describes the subjects’s action or condition. However, these elements, subjects and verbs, can be combined in di erent ways. These are di erent types of sentence structures: 1. A simple sentence expresses a complete thought and consists of one subject and verb combination: The children ate pizza. The subject is children. The verb is ate. The children and their parents ate pizza. The children ate pizza and watched a movie. All of these are still simple sentences. Despite having either compound subjects or compound verbs, each sentence still has only one subject and verb combination. 2. Compound Sentences- combine two or more simple sentences to form one sentence that has multiple subject-verb combinations: ff ff The children ate pizza, and their parents watched a movie. I called my mom, but she didn’t answer the phone. The weather was stormy, so we cancelled our trip to the beach. Compound sentences join two di erent subject-verb combinations using a comma and a coordinating conjunction. 3. Complex Sentence- consists of an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. Dependent clauses join a sentence using subordinating conjunctions. Some examples of subordinating conjunctions are although, unless, as soon as, since, while, when, because, if and before. I missed class yesterday because my mother was ill. Before traveling to a new country, you need to exchange your money to local currency. 4. Compound-Complex Sentence- can be created by joining two or more independent clauses with at least one dependent clause: After the earthquake struck, thousands of homes were destroyed, and many families were left without a place to live. ff