English Grammar: What's a sentence? - Learn about sentence types with JenniferESL

Do you like to build puzzles?

If you do, do you have a system?

First, I flip over all the pieces so I can see what I'm working with.

My grandmother taught me to build the edges first.

Then I work on one section at a time.

What can I say? I like organization. I like patterns.

Let's take some time to talk about the parts of a sentence and how they fit together.

There's a lot of pleasure when you finally put a puzzle together

and see a pretty picture.

Maybe you'll feel the same about putting together clear sentences in English.

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I know not everyone loves grammar or thinks grammar is worth studying.

But don't let words like "clause" and "direct object" scare you.

Grammar is an amazing tool, and I'd like to help you learn to use it.

Putting a sentence together is like building a puzzle.

Put the pieces in the right place, and you'll create something solid.

The basic element of a sentence is a clause.

A clause always has a subject and a verb.

That's what makes a complete sentence.

In everyday communication, we don't always use complete sentences.

That's especially true about texting.

But to express a complete idea we must build a sentence.

Do you know what kind of sentences you can build?

Often we make a statement: I love puzzles.

That's a declarative sentence.

Other times we ask a question: Do you like to build puzzles?

That's an interrogative sentence.

Sometimes we make a request or give a command: help.

That's an imperative sentence.

All sentences have a subject and a verb,

even an imperative sentence.

The subject "you" is implied. It's understood.

If you want to review the kinds of sentences we can make,

watch my video on sentence types according to purpose.

We can also classify sentences by their structure.

What kinds of clauses do they have?

Sentences can be short: He's smiling. She's smart.

Those are simple sentences with one main clause.

The clause is an independent clause because it can stand alone as a complete sentence.

Not all simple sentences are short.

But if we have one subject and a verb, then it's a simple sentence.

Compare:

She's smiling. (subject + verb)

The beautiful young lady over there is smiling sweetly at us. (subject + verb)

Other sentences may have two or more clauses joined together.

For example: She's smart, but she's very modest.

He's smiling because he's happy.

These are examples of compound and complex sentences.

To learn more, watch my video on sentences types according to structure.

In this lesson, we'll mostly focus on simple sentences with a single clause.

This will help you understand the parts of a clause.

I told you that a clause has a subject and a verb.

Remember that the subject can be a noun or anything that behaves like a noun.

Vacations can be expensive.

My summer vacation was so much fun.

It was so much fun.

Playing beach volleyball is a summertime activity.

We can have compound subjects, for example:

Hiking and swimming are two inexpensive activities.

We can even use a clause as our subject,

but that's for another lesson.

For example, you can watch my video on embedded questions to understand a sentence like this:

What I love most is the sound of the ocean.

This is no longer a simple sentence.

We have more than one clause.

One clause is the subject of another.

Clauses that can stand alone and make sense are called independent clauses.

For example: I love the sound of the ocean.

Clauses that must be joined with another to make sense are dependent clauses.

They're dependent on another clause.

An example: What I love most is the sound of the ocean.

"What I love most" cannot stand alone.

It's dependent on the other clause.

"What I love most is the sound of the ocean."

Remember there are two basic types of clauses: independent and dependent.

Both have a subject and a verb,

but only the independent clause can stand alone and make sense.

This is the kind of clause we'll focus on.

If you'd like to practice identifying dependent clauses, you can visit my website.

After the subject comes the predicate.

"Predicate" is just a fancy name for everything that follows the subject.

The predicate tells us what the subject does or what the subject is.

The predicate contains the verb.

Verbs, as you know, express an action or a state.

Try this. See if you can identify the subject and the predicate with the verb in each sentence.

The whole family traveled to a tropical island.

Subject. Predicate.

There's the verb.

Anna, Franco, and many members of their extended family met at the resort.

Subject. Predicate.

Where's the verb? There.

They had an amazing time relaxing on the beach and enjoying water sports.

Subject. Predicate.

Where's the main verb? Right there.

There's probably no end to how many original sentences we can make in English.

However, they all follow patterns,

and the number of patterns is limited.

There are five basic sentence patterns I want to teach you.

I'll show you examples of each one.

Here they are.

Some of you may already be familiar with these patterns.

But others may never have seen these sentences before, at least not shown like this.

It's okay. I'll do my best to make it easy to understand subject, verbs, objects, complements, and something called adverbials.

It will all make sense by the end.

Remember: knowledge is power.

If you want to empower yourself by building language skills, go on to the next video.

As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

Remember to follow me on social media. All the links are on my YouTube channel.