1—The sentence

The sentence is a sequence of words capable of standing alone to make an assertion, ask a question, or give a command, usually consisting of a subject and a predicate.

The Subject of a sentence is the person or thing the subject is about. In some sentences the subject is understood, e.g. Stop! (The subject 'you' is understood). Generally though, the complete subject includes the noun or noun substitute alone, without any of its modifiers. It normally occurs before the verb in sentences: e.g.

The woman in the frilly pink dress came into the room.

(the noun 'woman' is the subject)

Where are you going?

(the noun substitute, pronoun 'you', is the subject)

The Predicate of a sentence consists of the verb and its modifiers and complements. The predicate expresses the action or condition of the subject. Predicates may be simple or compound:

The simple predicate is the main verb or verb phrase in the predicate:

She visited Switzerland last year. (main verb)

The children were swimming in the sea. (verb phrase)

A compound predicate has two or more main verbs:

The clown joked, danced and sang. (3 main verbs)

He should have bought more fish. (verb+complement)

Little girls cry very easily. (verb+modifier)

Complements: While some verbs are complete in themselves (Birds fly), other verbs need a noun, noun substitute or adjective to complete their meaning. The term complement, then, means something that is needed to complete a grammatical construction. Complements may be a direct object, an object complement, a predicative adjective, or a predicative nominative.

The direct object is the noun which indicates the receiver of the action:

My brother plays the organ.

She celebrated her birthday yesterday.

The object complement follows the direct object and refers to the same thing, usually after verbs of naming or calling:

The director appointed Miss Sarah a personnel officer.

The predicative adjective is an adjective in the predicate referring to the subject:

Akram was cheerful.

My brother is quite fat.

The predicative nominative is a noun or noun subject in the predicate naming or referring to the subject:

Those women are dentists.

All of my sons have been scouts.

Types of sentence structure

Sentences can be divided into three kinds according to the way they are built, i.e. according to the number of clauses included and whether the clauses are independent (main) clauses or dependent (subordinate) clauses.

A simple sentence expresses one main idea. Thus it has one main clause which may have word or phrase modifiers (adjectives or adverbs or prepositional phrases):

My father was born in India.

A compound sentence expresses two or more main ideas in two or more independent (main) clauses:

My father was born in India but he came to Pakistan when he was a boy.

Main idea (1)                                     main idea (2)

A complex sentence expresses one main idea and at least one subordinate idea. Thus it contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses:

My father came here from India when he was a small boy.

main idea                                   subordinate idea

A compound-complex sentence is a combination that includes at least one dependent clause and at least two independent clauses:

Although the tickets had been bought, Tom didn't reach on time;

(subordinate clause)                           (independent clause)

and we missed the train. (independent clause)

Common Sentence Problems

Students frequently experience some common problems with sentence construction. Avoiding these problems will give them a definite advantage as they strive to improve their communication skills.

Sentence Fragments

A sentence fragment is a part of a sentence used as though it were a whole sentence. In formal writing it is treated as a serious grammatical mistake though it is accepted in conversation and in writing which imitates the patterns of speech, such as dialogue in a narration. Sentence fragments are not uncommon in colloquial writing, and are sometimes used in informal expository writing. However, their use in formal expository writing is unacceptable. The fact that for literary effects, good writers occasionally use sentence fragments should not be taken as a justification for those which result merely from inadequate command of the language.

Most unwarranted fragments in students' writings result from confusion of main and subordinate clauses or of verbs and verbals.

He entered each miss-spelled word in a notebook. Which he kept for that purpose.

I refused to go to the concert. Because I had been up late last night and needed sleep.

He is always complaining about his grades. Although he does nothing to improve them.

It was difficult to decide which choice to make. To return to university or to accept the job.

It was a wonderful week. Fishing and swimming every day and going to movies every night.

The Pakistani team scored 13 runs in the last over. Thus tying the score.

Fragmentary sentences may be corrected either by changing the faulty period to comma, thus incorporating the separated phrase or subordinate clause within the sentence to which it belongs, or by expanding the fragment into a main clause so that it can stand as an independent sentence.