Sentences
A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense. Thus, when we have something to say we use a group of words, and those groups of words now form sentences.
A sentence can be in form of a statement, a question, or a command.
For Example;
Tommy has a dog Statement
Where are you going Question
Open the door Command
In the first sentence, it tells us something; it tells us that Tommy has a dog, so it makes a statement.
The second sentence doesn’t tell us anything; rather, it asks something. It asks where someone is going – so it is a question. However, the answer to this question can now make a statement.
In the third, the sentence is neither a statement nor a question. It doesn’t give us information [as a statement does], nor does it as for information [as a question does]. Instead, it orders someone to do something. This means it is a command.
Therefore, a sentence can do one of these three things;
- Make a statement, to tell us something
- Ask a question, or
- Give a command.
Moreover, statements can be turned into questions or questions turned into statements by changing the order of the words. [There are also some other ways you can change statements to questions and vice versa, but they will be explained later in this article].
Now, let’s see some examples that show where statements are changed to questions;
Statements Questions
- That is Mary’s pen Is that Mary’s pen?
- You have had your lessons Have you had your lessons?
- John can speak French Can John speak French?
- The boy will do the work Will the boy do the work?
On the other hand, commands can be written in different ways;
For Example
- Put out the light! Go away!
- Please close the door Close the door, please!
- Come here, Mary Mary, come here.
Why do the commands appear in different forms?
In sentences 1 and 2, the person, who is to carry out the command is not mentioned. This is usually when the speaker is addressing only one person or one easily identifiable group of people, such as a teacher talking to one class.
But in sentence 3, the name of the person is mentioned, possibly because there is more than one listener in front of the speaker. In such a case, note how a comma is used to separate the name of the person addressed from the actual command.
Also, not how, in the second sentence in 2, the actual command is separated by a comma, from the word please which is something of an unnecessary addition and can easily be left out of the sentence. It is included only for politeness. – Which is to say that the command is quite complete without it.
Phrases
A phrase is a group of words that makes sense but not complete sense.
For Example
- Into the house
- At nine o’clock
- For eighty cents.
Groups of words like the ones above are called phrases.
Now, when you look closely at sentences and phrases, you will see that the notable difference between them is that a sentence has a verb in it, while a phrase doesn’t have a verb in it.
However, you can turn a phrase into a sentence by adding other words to it and one of those words you can add to a phrase to make it a sentence must be a verb.
With that being said, let us now turn these phrases that we have above into sentences by adding something (including a verb) to them.
- John went into the house
- I left home at nine o’clock
- George bought the book for eighty cents.
With the illustrations above, I believe you can now differentiate between phrases and sentences, change phrases to sentences and likewise change statements to questions, and so on!
ALSO READ: Parts Of Speech In English Language – Listing & Details
Exercises
To make sure the little piece above is well understood, let’s quickly take the exercises below before we proceed.
1). Point out which of the following are sentences and which are phrases?
a) she saw the boy
b) in the garden
c) open the door
d) across the field
e) come here
2). Turn the following phrases into sentences
a) a few years ago
b) by Friday night
c) on page sixteen
d) near the railway station
e) in his pocket
3). Turn the following questions into statements
a) was chief Fadaka a business man?
b) did chief Fadaka think his house was not big enough?
c) was the property worth $25,000?
d) did the agents make the purchase within a week?
e) was the house owner in difficulties?
4). Turn the following statements into questions
a) the chief’s neighbor was a trader
b) he had to borrow money from a friend and from the bank
c) he was attacked on his way to the market by armed robbers
d) the estate agents got the property at a bargain
e) the chief wanted the property at all costs
5). Make commands using the following words. (Arrange them in the proper order, adding any words, e.g. at, the. You need to make correct command sentences.)
a) Door, John, Open.
b) Mary, book to me, quickly bring
c) Tomorrow, home-work, here, bring
d) Talking, stop, now, and, work, begin.
e) Your name, top of paper, write.
Good lucks!
Parts Of a Sentence
Just above we learned about sentences and phrases; where we said that sentences are groups of words that make complete sense while a phrase is a group of words that makes sense but not complete sense.
Now, we’re going to look at the parts of a sentence.
So, to learn about parts of a sentence, let’s take a look at the following sentences as they are divided into parts.
Part A Part B
Chief Fadaka had a beautiful garden
I can do those exercises
The poor woodcutter lost his axe
This book belongs to me
The boy laughed.
Above, you will notice that each sentence is divided into two parts by a space, and the parts are marked Part A and Part B. Part A of the sentence above is what we call “the subject” while part B is called “the predicates.”
The Subject
In a sentence, the subject is the word or group of words that we speak about.
Let’s refer to the sentence in Part A above;
PART A [Chief Fadaka, I, The poor woodcutter, This book, The boy] contains the person or thing we are talking about in the sentence. So, we call them the “subject” of the sentence.
The Predicate
In a sentence, “the predicate” is the word or group of words that tells us something about the subject.
Now, let’s take a look at the sentences in Part B.
PART B [Had a beautiful garden, Can do these exercises, lost his axe, belongs to me, laughed] is what we say about the subject. Therefore, we call that part of the sentence “the predicate.”
The subject “is” or “does” something. The predicate tells us what the subject “is” or “does”. The predicate can be one word, or it can be several words.
Also, you will notice from PART A and PART B of the sentence above that there is generally a noun or pronoun in the subject (Chief Fadaka, I, Woodcutter, Book, etc.). And then, there is always a verb in the predicate (Had, Can do, Lost, Ran, etc.).
In fact, an easy way to find the subject of a sentence is; First of all, pick out the verb and ask it. “who?” or “what?”
For Example;
The little boy ran down the street
The verb there is RAN
So, you can ask, “who ran?”
Now the answer would be; “the little boy”
Hence, “the little boy” is the subject of the sentence. And “ran down the street” is the predicate.
Also, take this sentence;
This book belongs to me
The verb here is “belongs”
So, you can ask, “what belongs?”
Then the answer would be “this book”
Thus, “this book” is the subject of the sentence, while “belongs to me” is the predicate.
The Object Of a Sentence
To understand the concept of the object of a sentence, let’s use an illustration below to explain it.
If I said to you;
“the dog killed”
“he killed yesterday”
“the shop sells”
Definitely, you would look at me, rather puzzled, and say;
“Go on, finish the sentence. Tell me what the shop sells and what the dog killed.”
That is to say, those verbs “sell and kill” do not make sense by themselves. You must put something after them for them to make sense.
Thus, we have to complete the sentences by saying;
“The shop sells bicycles”
“The dog killed a rat, he killed it yesterday”
At this point now, the listener would say, ‘oh yes, that makes sense.’
Therefore,
The word “bicycle” is the object of the verb “sells.”
While the words “rat and it” are the objects of the verb “killed“.
Meanwhile,
Verbs that have an object (some verbs don’t) are called “transitive” verbs, refer to this article here. ‘Transitive’ is derived from a Latin word that means “going over”. The action of killing ‘goes over’ from the dog to the rat. The action of selling ‘goes over’ from the shop to the bicycles.
Hence, we can say;
The object of a sentence is a noun (or pronoun) that tells us the person or thing to whom the action of the verb happened.
From our paragraphs above, we can recall that we found the subject of the verb by putting the question word “who (or what)” before it.
Now we can find the object by putting the question word “what? (or who?)” after the verb.
For Example;
“The shop sells bicycles.”
*The verb is sells;
So, put the question word “what? After it,….which is “sells what?”
*The answer is “bicycles”. Hence, “bicycles” is the object of the sentence.
Also, below are two more examples;
1). The rat bit the dog
2). The dog killed the rat
In sentence 1, the action of biting goes from the rat to the dog; then in sentence 2, the action of killing goes from the dog to the rat.
So, since both sentences have objects, the verbs bit and killed are “Transitive verbs.”
Therefore, the summary is that verbs that take objects are called transitive verbs.
However, there are some verbs that don’t have objects, because sometimes the action doesn’t “pass over” from one person to another person or thing.
For instance, consider the sentences below;
1). The dog barked
2). The rat died
3). His pen lost.
Here,
The action of barking starts and ends with the dog. It doesn’t ‘go over’ to anything else. The action of dying begins and ends with the rat, etc.
This that, if you say, “barked what?” “died what?” “lost what?” you can’t get a sensible answer. These verbs have no objects. They are intransitive verbs.
So, in summary, we say that verbs that don’t have objects are called intransitive verbs.
The Complements
Complements are said to be those words that are needed to complete the meaning of intransitive verbs such as “be” “seem” and “become.”
For instance; if I should say;
“Today is”
“The flower seems”
“The man became”
A listener would ask;
“Is what?”
“Seems what?”
“Became what?”
Quite right. Therefore, I have to add a few more words;
For Example;
“Today is my birthday”
“The flower seems dead”
“The man became angry”
Moreover, the words that I have added above are not objects.
Which means that (Is, Seems, Became, are all intransitive verbs).
Thus, words or phrases that are needed to complete the meaning of intransitive verbs such as “be” “seem” and “became” are called complements.
That’s it! This article has taught almost everything about sentences and phrases, including the subjects and objects of a sentence, together with the complements. Hope that serves you right. Stay tuned for more of our updates!
Thank you and good luck!