Sentence in English Grammar – Structure, Types, Examples

You can write 100 sentences at a stretch. But do you know what is the real meaning of a “sentence”? Read the article to know about Sentence in English Grammar.

In general, the sentence is the foundation stone of the English language.  Read in detail what is a sentence and what are the essential components of a sentence.

Firstly, traditional grammar study begins with the study of sentences. The sentence is the basic unit of meaningful expression.

In other words, a sentence can be defined as a group of words that makes complete sense. It is often understood in the given way, a group of letters combines to form words and a group of words combines to form sentences.

A phrase can also be defined as a group of words it makes sense but not complete sense.

Let’s look into the major difference between phrases and sentences.

Phrases – Examples

• In the morning
• All alone
• In a warm way
• At 12 o’clock
• Across the street

Sentence in English Grammar – Examples

• We went to the beach to watch the sunrise in the morning
• She spent her day all alone.
• She handles people in a warm way
• We have to gather here at 12 o’clock
• The friends walked across the street quickly

Effective Sentence 

If a sentence serves the purpose for which it is meant, it is called an effective sentence. A sentence should prove to be effective to become meaningful. Sometimes, sentences act as too weak or too clumsy.

Such sentences fail to impress the intended readers. This is the failure of the sentence to become effective. In short, if you wish to write or speak an effective sentence, you need to learn the basic components and other aspects of the sentence. 

Sentence

• A sentence is made up of two components, namely, subject and predicate.
• A sentence has a subject and predicate. But a phrase doesn’t contain a subject and predicate.
• In short, a sentence can give us complete meaning or can make complete sense.
• The two parts of the sentence play a key role in the construction. The two parts of a sentence are the subject and predicate.
• The subject names the person or thing we speak about. The predicate forms what is said about the subject.
• The original meaning of the term predicate is ‘proclaim’ or ‘affirm’. So the predicate would naturally fall into the category of what we say or affirm about the subject.
• A group of words that from the subject is called a Noun Phrase(NP). The verb and the words which complement or modify the verb are together called a Verb Phrase (VP).

A word or words added to modify the meaning of the subject is the enlargement of the subject. What is added to modify the meaning of a simple predicate is the enlightenment of the predicate.

Furthermore, to understand the meaning and sense, the sentence components should be placed in the right order. Sentence structure should be minded once you start learning how to make sentences. Sentence structure is part of the grammatical component.

Basically, The sentence structure will give you an idea of when and where to place certain grammatical components in a sentence.

In other words, sentence structure can also be regarded as the proper grammatical arrangement of words to form meaningful sentences. In short, by looking at a sentence you can determine how the sentence will sound. The sentence structure defines the existence of a sentence itself.

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Basic Grammatical Components of a Sentence

Five components form a sentence. In detail, the structure of the sentence depends upon the proper arrangement of the grammatical components. The basic components that constitute a sentence include

• Subject
• Verb
• Object
• Compliment
• Adjunct

Now, it’s time for us to understand each component

Subject

• A subject is defined as a noun that performs the main action in a sentence
• It usually answers the question ‘who’ in a grammatically correct sentence
• In most cases, especially concerning declarative or assertive sentences, the subject appears in the first place.

Examples

• The boy plays football
• My daughter is still young
• She got married
• Our dance team won the competition
• Neena wrote the letter

Verb

• Consider each sentence, a verb is the action word. It is the most keyword in a sentence
• A verb shows the activity in a sentence
• It determines the work done by the subject

Verbs include

• main verbs
• Auxiliary verbs
• Action verbs
• Stative verbs
• All these types of verbs appear in the sentence depending on the context.
• In most cases, the subject is followed by verbs.

Examples

• Sheethal dances well.
• It was too cold
• She felt happy
• It is not working.
• The cat meowed

Object

• An object can be a noun or pronoun
• An object is that part of the grammatical component that receives action done by subject

The object can be classified into two, namely,

• Direct object
• Indirect object

Now, let’s get to know about direct and indirect object

• A direct object can be a noun or pronoun
• The direct object receives action directly
• It always answers the question ‘what’
• It is also regarded as the primary object in a sentence

Examples

• He got a new task
• My brother bought a car
• She met him yesterday
• We watched a horror
• show
• She spent her time

Next, we can look into the intricacies of indirect object

• The indirect object is otherwise called the secondary object
• It is the noun or pronoun that acts as a second in a sentence
• It answers the question ‘whom’
• It is usually placed before the direct object
• An indirect object can also be identified after the verb in a sentence

Examples

• Veena gave Manu a notebook
• She met him on the way
• He bought me a new t-shirt
• Meenu gave Anu a new box of chocolate
• She offered me coffee
• He gave a pen to my friend

Complement

• A complement in a sentence gives complete meaning to the sentence
• Words that can  to give the complete sense or meaning to a sentence

Complement in a sentence can be

• adjective
• Position
• Name
• Profession

Examples

• She is a teacher
• That’s her mother, Thulasi
• It grew cold

Based on the component about which the complement talks, it can be further classified into two, namely,

• Subject complement
• Object complement

Subject complement

A subject complement talks about the identity, condition, or quality of a subject.

Examples

• She is an engineer
• Rose is beautiful
• Nanditha is intelligent
• He is Madhu Sudan

Object Complement

An object complement talks about the identity, condition, and quality of an object.

Examples

• She made her sad
• Marly met her pet, Blackie
• None of us found it worth watching

Adjunct

• Word or phrase which gives more details about the action, quality, event, etc in a sentence.
• It includes adverb clauses and adverbs.
• Adjunct answers the questions such as ‘when, where, how, why, to what extent, how often’.
• It can be used at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence
• A sentence can have more than one adjunct at a time

Examples

• This morning, I saw him *at the bus stop
• He reads the magazine _every week_
• The job is extremely tiring
• She is very short

Sentence Structure – Types

There are different types of sentence structures are there in English grammar. Additionally, if you wish to make your academic writing or spoken English more appealing and organized, you have to learn about basic sentence structure. The highly organized sentence structure can help you sound like a professional writer or speaker. The commonly used sentence structures are given below to capture the immediate attention of the learners.

• Subject + Verb (SV)

Example: The birds are flying

• Subject + Verb + Object (SVO)

Example: She loves music

• Subject + Verb + Complement (SVC)

Example: He is a patient

• Subject + Verb + Adjunct (SVA)

Example: They arrived early

• Subject + Verb + Object + Adjunct (SVOA)

Example: They settled here two years ago

• Adjunct + Subject + Verb + Complement (ASVC)

Example: Normally, the cold is bearable

• Adjunct + Subject + Verb + Adjunct + Adjunct (ASVAA)

Example: Last Year, my friends and my beloved cousin went to Goa for a weekend trip

• Adjunct + Subject + Verb + Object (ASVO)

Example: Last month we celebrated Christmas

• Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object (SVIODO)

Example: The college offered me a position

• Subject + Verb + Object + Complement (SVOC)

Example: My parents make me happy

• Subject + Verb + Adjunct + Adjunct (SVAA)

Example: We go to picnic by car

• Adjunct + Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object (ASVIODO)

Example: Today, our mentor returned the corrected assignments to us

Kinds of Sentences

Sentences can be usually divided into four based on the order and the function. The sentences can be of four kinds, namely, declarative or assertive sentences, imperative sentences, interrogative sentences, and exclamatory sentences.

• Declarative or assertive sentence

A sentence which asserts or declares something is called a declarative sentence.

Examples

• He lives in Mumbai
• The Indus is a holy river
• Meena loves hockey

These sentences assert a fact. In a declarative sentence, the subject usually comes in the first place. The verb is mentioned only after mentioning the subject.

• Imperative Sentence

The imperative sentence expresses a command, wish, or request. In an imperative sentence, the subject is omitted.

Examples

• Don’t wander about there
• Give me a helping hand
• May God bless you!

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• Interrogative Sentence

A sentence that asks the question is commonly called an interrogative sentence. Interrogative sentences never start with a subject. In deIt begins with a helping verb or auxiliary verb or with question words such as why, when, who, what, etc. The interrogative sentence should be followed by a question mark.

Examples

• Have you read Tolstoy’s work?
• Why does he love football so much?
• Did you attend the function yesterday?

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• Exclamatory Sentence

A sentence that expresses a strong and sudden feeling which includes anger, sorrow, or anger is commonly called an exclamatory sentence.

• What a beautiful flower!
• How kind of him to help us so much!
• What a pity!

Negative and Positive Sentences

He is arriving is a positive sentence. The positive sentence can be changed into a negative once you use ‘not’ in the sentence. He is not arriving is now a negative sentence. A positive sentence can be changed into a negative sentence by using “no, not, never, neither, nor” and other negative expressions.

Significantly, a sentence is a key element for communication. Constructing a sentence without any error is the most careful task that one ought to carry out.  Learning the basic grammatical component that formulates the sentence is an important chapter for English language learners.

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