Sentence Structure
Sentence Structure
A sentence is a group of words that you use to communicate your ideas in writing or in speech. It is a complete, independent unit of thought and consists of two main parts ; subject and a predicate.
The subject is the word or words that names the person, thing, or place that a sentence is about. It is usually a noun or pronoun.
The predicate makes a statement about the subject. It consist of a verb and its modifiers or complements. The verb is the most important part of the predicate. It expresses action or a state of being.
Complement is a word or words used to complete the meaning of the verb.
Every sentence must have a subject and a verb. A sentence may be a statement, question, command, request, or exclamation. The first letter of a sentence must be capitalized, and the sentence must end with a final punctuation mark in the form of a period(.), a question mark (?) or an exclamation point (!).
The following are samples of different types of sentences
1. What is ecology?........Question
2. Ecology is the science of the relationship between organism and their environment......Statement
3. Save the environment! Command
4. Would you write a report on ecology and man?......Request
5. What a polluted lake that is! ......Exclamation
Note: In the third the sentence, the subject is not included it is understood to be “ you “
The Clause
There are two kinds of clauses; independent ( main ) and dependent ( subordinate).
An independent clause is a group of words that has a subject and verb. It is used as a part of a sentence but is grammatically independent and could therefore stand alone.
The following sentences show good examples of independent clauses :
I may declare my major now, but I can still change it later.
Foreign student suffer from culture shock when they come to the United States.
Because the cost of education has been rising rapidly, many students are having financial problem
You will need certain qualifications if you choose a career in computer programming
Note that each independent clause above is a complete sentence.
Independent clause
An independent clause is formed with:
Subject + Verb + Complement
A dependent clause
A dependent clause is introduced with a subordinator such as when, while, if, or before. It is followed by a subject, verb, and a complement. It cannot stand alone because the subordinator signals the need for an independent clause to complete the meaning of the sentence.
Example
When the semester was over.....
......who was accepted by the university...
...if you leave your car unlocked.
Because I had a job interview....
Each of the above clauses is dependent since each of them expresses only a part of a complete thought and is therefore a fragment ( an incomplete sentence ). In order to form a grammatically complete sentence, each of the above clauses must be joined to an independent clause.
A dependent clause is formed with : Subordinator + subject + Verb + Complement.