UNIVERSIDAD DE ORIENTE

NÚCLEO DE BOLIVAR
DEPARTAMENTO SOCIO-HUMANISTICO
ASIGNATURA: INGLES INSTRUMENTAL
DR. PEDRO A. RASSE M.

Basic Structure of a Sentence

(Words, Phrases, Clauses)

Let`s do a brief and practical linguistic conceptualization of words, phrases, clauses and
sentence.

Words

Word is the basic unit of language. Words can be classified according to their action and
meaning, but it is not easy to define. A word works as a symbol to refer something or
someone in language to communicate a specific meaning.

Parts of the speech are the classification of words categorized by their roles and functions
within the structure of language. They encompass everything a language has in itself. They
play different roles in the structure of a language. In English, there are eight parts of speech:

Nouns

Nouns are used more frequently than any other part of speech, and many sentences contain
more than one noun. Nouns refers to…

 Person: professor, engineer, student, girl, baby, Dr. Jones, Mary, John…
 Animal: horse, eagle, snake, dog…
 Place: stadium, restaurant, city, state, country, London, South America…
 Think: book, airplane, hammer, house, building, Ferrari, the Capitol…
 Event or Activity: graduation, birth, marriage, celebration, shopping, rest…
 Idea or Concept: democracy, humor, honor, time, love, justice…

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Types of nouns:

Nouns are classified as proper, common, collective, abstract, verbal, countable, uncountable
and compound.
Proper nouns are formal names of persons, place and things, and they are capitalized. e.g.

 Jack went to Miami University.

 I found out that Dr. Merrill attended school in Tennessee.

Common nouns are more casual names and words, and they are not capitalized. e.g.

 The father took his daughter to the room.

 The physician worked with the psychologist.

Collective nouns are words that identify groups. Although collective nouns can express more than one
person or thing, they usually are regarded as singular words. e.g.

 The new committee selects medical school candidates.

 He was attacked by a swarm of bees.

Abstract nouns are words that refer to things that cannot be perceived through the physical senses,
such as ideas or qualities. e.g.

 The wealth of a country is in education

 Our friendship will last forever.

Verbal nouns are words that begin with a verb and end in "-ing" but function as nouns. Verbal nouns
also are called gerunds. e.g.

 Editing is an important part of transcription.

 They said that studying had always been difficult for them.
 Cleaning and dressing a drain site daily can inhibit contamination.

Countable nouns are those that name something that can be counted, e.g.

Four books, two continents, a few dishes, a dozen buildings.

Uncountable nouns designate something that cannot be counted, e.g.

Water, energy, blood, air.

Compound nouns are formed with two or more common names or two or more proper
names, e.g.
Ice cream, comic-strip, self-confidence, South America, Mexico City.

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Pronouns

Pronouns are simply words that substitute for nouns and function in sentences like nouns.
Pronouns can be classified as personal, demonstrative, relative, interrogative, reflexive,
intensive and indefinite.

Personal pronouns are noun substitutes that refer to a particular person or group of people.
Personal pronouns include the words I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they.

 We enjoyed hearing her lecture.

 They can represent different types.
 She shows our transcription exercises to you.

Demonstrative pronouns include the words this, that, these and those.

 This has a higher frequency of infection than that.

 These are more highly trained than those.

Relative pronouns link a clause to another pronoun or noun. Interrogative pronouns are
noun substitutes that introduce questions. Relative pronouns include the words who, which
and that. Interrogative pronouns include the words who, which and what.

 They were the physicists who traveled from Atlanta.

Interrogative pronouns are used to make asking questions easy. They are who, whom,
whose, which, and what.

 Whose did they take?

 Which is the greater?
 What is that you have made?

The interrogative pronouns how, why, when and where share the syntactic properties of
other pronouns. These words do other types of jobs in clauses and phrases. Interrogative
how and why are usually adverbs. Interrogative when and where are prepositions.

Reflexive pronouns are noun substitutes that show that the subject of the sentence also
receives the action of the verb. Intensive pronouns are noun substitutes that stress a noun
or another pronoun.

 They have no one to blame but themselves. (reflexive)

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Intensive pronouns are almost identical to a reflexive pronoun, but their functions differ.
Intensive pronouns are used to add emphasis to the subject or antecedent of the sentence.

 We went to hear the man himself speak.

 She herself approved the book cover.

Indefinite pronouns are special pronouns that do not substitute for a specific noun but refer
to one or a group of unknown, or indefinite, nouns. Some rules for indefinite pronouns:

a. Indefinite pronouns always take singular pronouns, e.g.

 Everybody prefers his own computer equipment.

b. Indefinite pronouns usually take a singular verb, but the indefinite pronouns all, any,
none, and some may take a plural verb, e.g.
 All patients go to admissions before having day surgery.

Verbs
Verbs are words that express actions or states of being. The verbs of state of being describe
the condition of a person or thing. The verb is the most important word in the sentence. It is
impossible to express a complete thought without a verb.

Classification of verbs:

Transitive and intransitive verbs

 Transitive Verbs require an object to complete their meaning.

Chemists extract radium from pitchblende. Extract what? Radium

 Intransitive Verbs do not require an object.

The words differ in a single letter.

Linking Verbs

The Linking Verbs connect a subject and its complement. Sometimes they are called copulatives.
The linking verbs are frequently forms of the verb "to be" (is, are, am, was, were, been); but
sometimes they are verbs related to the 5 senses (look, sound, smell, feel, taste); and
sometimes, verbs that somehow reflect a state of being (appear, seem, become, grow, turn,
prove, remain).

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Regular and Irregular Verbs

In Regular Verbs "D" or "ed" is added to the present or the infinitive to form the past and the
participle. E.g. Talk, talked, talked.

Irregular Verbs do not follow any specific rules to form the past and the participle. Sometimes
you only proceed to make a change of vowel, E.g. Speak, spoke, spoken.

Auxiliary and Defective Verbs

Auxiliary and Defective Verbs are those words of help that accompany another verb (main
verb) to indicate time, mode or voice, e.g. to have, to be, to do, can, may, must, ought to.
The combination of the auxiliary verbs with the main verbs creates what are called verbal
phrases or extensions verbal.

Modals Auxiliaries

Modals in English are: may, might, must, should, will, would, can, shall could, ought
(to). Usually, modals express attitudes of the speaker. For example, modals can express
that the speaker feels something that is necessary, advisable, permissible, possible or
probable, and in addition, they can bear the weight of these attitudes.

Adjectives

Adjectives are used to qualify or modify a noun or a pronoun expressing their quality,
number, weight, situation or condition. Adjectives fall into categories, and those categories
comprise the royal order:

 Determiner (articles, demonstartives, cuantifiers, cardinal and ordinal numbers,

possesive adjectives)
 Quality (Observation or opinion, size and shape: a genuine fraud, an interesting
book, an expensive watch, tiny, fat, square)
 Age (young, old, new)
 Color (blue, sea-green)
 Origin (American, Chinese)
 Material (describing what something is made of: silk, copper, wooden)
 Noun modifier or qualifier (final adjective, often an integral part of the noun:
vacation resort, wedding dress, race car)

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Adverbs

An adverb is a word that modifies the meaning of a verb, adjective or other adverb speech
to describe what, when, where, why, or how an action occurs. The adverbs sometimes end
in -ly; however, many words and phrases ending in -ly, are not a guarantee that this word is
an adverb. The words lovely, lonely, motherly, friendly, neighborly, for example are
adjectives. The word "not" is always an adverb.

Modifies:

 Adverb to a verb:
 He run slowly (how did he run?)
 Adverb to an adjective:
 He run a very fast race (how fast was his race?)
 Adverb to another adverb:
 He moved quite slowly down the hill (how slowly did he move?)

Intensifiers are adverbs that increase the significance of adjectives and other adverbs. In
English, they are placed before the word you are modifying.

 It's quite extremely hot today.

 Ms. Stress is really busy right now.
 He's my very best friend.
 I'm a little tired today.
 That was a pretty good shot.
 I know her fairly well.
 You're absolutely right!

Classification of Adverbs:

 Time: Answer the question: when? tomorrow, yesterday, today, now

 Place: answer the question: where? here, down, everywhere, up, outside
 Manner: answer the question: how? fairly, very, badly, well, easily
 Frequency: answer the question: how often? always, never, sometimes, usually
 Negation and affirmation: no, not, yes.
 Probability: certainly, definitely, probably, obviously
 Purpose: indicate why or why something is done.

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Prepositions

Prepositions are those words which are used to connect nouns, pronouns and phrases in
any sentence. Usually preposition indicates the relationship between nouns that how they
are connected to each other. It shows that whether words are connected through time, space
and place.

List of common prepositions

Aboard, About, Above, According to, Across, After, Against,, Ahead of, Along, Alongside, Amid,
Amidst, Among, Anti, Around, As, As far as, As well as, At, Atop, Before, Behind, Below,
Between, But, By, Considering, Down, During, Except, Excluding, Following, For, From, In, In
addition to, In case of, Inside, Into, Like, Mid, Near, Next, Next to, Notwithstanding, Of, Off, On,
On account of, On behalf of, On top of, Onto, Opposite, Outside, Outside of, Over, Owing to,
Past, Per, Plus, Prior to, Regarding, Round, Save, Since, Than, Through, Throughout, To, Until,
Up, With, Within, Without.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words that link other words, phrases, or clauses together. Conjunctions
allow you to form complex, elegant sentences and avoid the choppiness of multiple short
sentences. Without conjunctions, you’d be forced to express every complex idea in a series
of short, simplistic sentences: I like sports. I like running. I don’t like swimming.

 Coordinating Conjunctions allow you to join words, phrases, and clauses of equal
grammatical rank in a sentence. The most common coordinating conjunctions are
for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.
 Jack will be late to work, but he has a dental appointment.
 Correlative Conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together. Some
examples are either/or, neither/nor, and not only/but also.
 Either lead, follow, or get out of the way.

Subordinating Conjunctions join independent and dependent clauses. A subordinating

conjunction can signal a cause-and-effect relationship, a contrast, or some other kind of
relationship between the clauses. Common subordinating conjunctions are because, since,
as, although, though, while, and whereas. Sometimes an adverb, such as until, after, or
before can function as a conjunction.
 After the basement flooded, we spent all day cleaning up.

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Interjections
An interjection is an exclamatory word or phrase used to express a weak, mild, or strong
feeling or emotion. An interjection is a part of speech in English grammar. Some of them
are: Ah, Alas, Bravo, Eh, Eww, Hey, Hmm, Humph, Hurrah, Muahaha, Oh, Oops, Ouch,
Ooh-la-la, Phew, Psst, Uh-hu, Umm, Wee, Yahoo, Yeah, Yippee, Yoo-hoo.

 Yahoo, we did it!

 We’ve done it! Hurrah!
 Ouch, that hurt!

The Phrase

It is a group of related words that does not include subjects and verb. Every phrase must
be composed of at least two words.

Types of Phrases:

Nominal Phrase
They comprise a noun and any associated modifier. They can serve as subjects, direct
objects, indirect objects or prepositions objects. This type of phrase begins with articles,
demonstrative pronouns, possessive adjectives and quantifiers. Example:

 The left and right coronary arteries

 The most common symptom of a heart attack
 Some risk factors
 many small beams
 Three basic physical differences
 His main objective
 Several of these examples
 That remarkable and important fact

 Determiners

Determiners are words (articles, possessives, demonstratives, or quantifiers) that specify

the denotation of a nominal phrase:

 Articles: a, an, the

 Demonstrative: this, that, these, those, which, etc.
 Quantifiers: all, few, many, several, some, every, each, any, no, etc.
 Ordinal and cardinal numbers: one, two ... first, second, third...
 Possessive determiners: include possessive adjectives "and" possessive
pronouns: my, your, his… mine, yours….

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  Quantifiers

Quantifiers also called extensive or quantity adjectives. These describe the noun
inaccurately. Some of them are: some, many, much, any, a lot of, half, little, few,
plenty, enough, any, none, more, most, fewer, least, several, each, every and all.

Verbal Phrase

Verbal phrases are “verbals” and any of the verb form's modifiers, objects, or
complements. The three types of verbal phrases are participial, gerund, and infinitive
phrases.

 Participial Phrases are present participles or past participles and any modifiers,
objects, or complements. Participial phrases contain verbs which act as adjectives
in a sentence.
 The girl, smiling and waving, said hello.
 Coming to the university, I finished my homework.
 The woman, standing in the corner, is my teacher.

 Gerund Phrases contain verbs ending in -ing and any modifiers, objects, or
complements. Gerund phrases act as nouns in a sentence. They can act as the
subject or object of a verb, as a predicate nominative, and as the object of a
preposition.
 Waiting for his grades drove him crazy.
(The gerund phrase works as the subject of the verb "drove")
 Making many acquaintances is cultivating future friendships.
(The gerund phrases work as the subject and as the predicate nominative)

 Infinitive Phrases contain verbals consisting of "to" follow by a verb and any
modifiers, objects, or complements. Infinitive phrases usually act as nouns, but
they can also act as adjectives and adverbs.

 To live in USA eventually is his main goal in life.

(The infinitive phrase works as the subject of the sentence)
 They went home to visit their family.
(The infinitive phrase works as an adverb, modifying "went")

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Adjective Phrases

An adjective phrase always has an adjective acting as the head. An adjective phrase is a
group of words that describe a noun or pronoun in a sentence. The adjective in an
adjective phrase can appear at the start, end, or in the middle of the phrase. The adjective
phrase can be placed before, or after, the noun or pronoun in the sentence. Examples:

 Faster than a speeding bullet, he saved the day.

 A person, smarter than him, has to figure this out.
 She is rather fond of skiing.
 They were far too serious about their grades.
 The result was not too terrible.
 Those efforts were worth the cost.
 My brother is older than me.
 I feel sorry for people living on the streets.
 It was dark colored.
 People with a strong immune system are most likely to recover quickly.

Adverbial Phrase

It is composed of adverbs that modify verbs, adjectives or clauses. This type of phrase is
introduced by an adverb: time, place, mode, frequency, etc. Adverbial phrases modify the
verb. This kind of phrase can be found with more than one word, typically only two, unless
there is some coordinated conjunction.

The word extra is usually a special type of adverb called an intensifier; which, as the
name implies, intensifies the quality indicated by adjectives and adverbs. Some
intensifiers are: very, really, almost, absolutely, etc. Example:

 He opened it extremely easily.

 I'll do it quite soon.
 I ran so fast.
 He was quite unexpectedly kind.
 He came very surprisingly quickly.
 It's quite/ extremely hot today.
 Ms. Stress is really busy right now.
 You're absolutely right!

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 Prepositional Phrase

It is a group of words formed by a preposition followed by its object. These phrases are
used adjectively to modify nouns, or adverbially to modify verbs, adjectives or clauses.
Example:

 He kept his money within the book’s pages.

 Because of the rain, he could not arrive early.
 These organizational activities in traditional units are not sufficiently
immune from political considerations.
 There are lots of people on the court.

The sentence

The sentence is the minimum communicational unit, with complete meaning. This means
that it is the smallest fragment of the statement that communicates a total idea, and has
independence (Specifically, it could be taken out of context and keep communicating, not
the same but something). Sentences are delimited prosodically by pauses and graphically
by commas or periods.

Sentences are made up of a subject and a predicate. The subject is defined as the person,
animal, or thing about which we say something and that agrees in number and person with
the verb that is the nucleus of the predicate.

The predicate is defined as the part of the sentence that expresses an event, which can be
a state, an event or an action. Explicitly, it is the part of the sentence in which the verb is
found and, with often, other complements that, if any, maintain a relationship with the verb
at different levels of closeness. Inside the predicate appears all the complements that have
no place in the subject of a sentence.

Elements of the subject:

Simple subject (Nucleus of the subject): Represents the noun or base pronoun without
modifiers, e.g.
 Medical students learn by diagnosing and delivering care to their patients.
Simple subject

Complete subject: Includes the simple subject with its modifiers, e.g.
 Medical students learn by diagnosing and delivering care to their patients.
Complete subject

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Elements of the predicate:
Simple predicate (nucleus of the predicate): Includes everything related with the verb, e.g.
 The medical career requires a lot of study, responsibility and effort.
Simple predicate

Complete predicate: Includes the verb and all its complements or modifiers, e.g.
 The medical career requires a lot of study, responsibility and effort.
Complete predicate

Types of sentences according to the structure:

1. – Simple Sentence: it is equivalent to an
independent clause. A clause “a group of words
containing a subject and
We drove from Connecticut to Tennessee in one day. predicate and functioning
as a member of a complex
or compound sentence.”

2. – Compound Sentence: it is the combination of two – Merriam-Webster -

or more independent clauses.

An independent clause functions on its own to make a meaningful sentence and looks
much like a regular sentence.

 Coordinating Conjunctions are simple and their function is the union of words,
phrases or sentences of equal rank. And, but, or, for, not, so and yet are coordinating
conjunctions. This type of conjunction is regularly used to join independent clauses.
Example:
 The scientist heard the weather report and he promptly boarded up his lab
 You can study hard for this exam or you can fail
We were exhausted, but we arrived in time for the scientific meeting

3. – Complex Sentence: it is the combination of an independent clause and a dependent

clause.

A dependent clause cannot function on its own because it leaves an idea or thought
unfinished. It is also called subordinate clause.

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  Subordinate Conjunctions are those that establish the relationship between a
dependent clause and the rest of the sentence. It is placed at the beginning of the
dependent clause making it subordinate in meaning to the other part.

Subordinators include relative pronouns, subordinating conjunctions, and noun clause

markers. After, although, as, as if, as long as, as though, because, before, even if, than,
even though, if, if only, in order that, now that, once, rather than, since, so that, that, though,
till, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, while. Examples:

 He took to the stage as though he had been preparing for this moment.
 Because he loved reading, he refused to lose in the movies.
 Unless we act now, all is lost.
 Although he is now 79 years old, he still claims to be 65.

4. - Compound-Complex Sentence: it is the combination of one or more independent

clauses and at least one dependent clause. Example:

 After it was all over, my dad claimed he knew we were planning something,
but we think he was really surprised.
 She likes to asleep in but she can get up early if she has work.

Types of sentences according to the functions:

In addition to classifying sentences by the number of clauses they contain, you can classify
sentences according to their functions. There are four sentence functions in English:
declarative, exclamatory, interrogative, and imperative.

 Declarative sentences state an idea. They end with a period. For example:
 Strength training builds more than muscles.
 Harvard doctors reveal the secrets to controlling eczema and psoriasis.

 Exclamatory sentences show strong emotions. They end with an exclamation

mark. For example:
 Wow, what a happy ending!
 Fantastic, let's go!

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  Interrogative sentences ask a question. As you would expect, they end with a
question mark. For example:
 How many topics do you have to study?
 Did you take your vitamin this morning?

 Imperative sentences give commands or instructions, and so end with a period or

an exclamation mark. For example:
 Stop moving in circles! (Expressing a command)
 Move in circle just once a day. (Expressing an instruction)

It has been quite an interesting discussion and exemplification on the concepts and
classifications of words, phrases, clauses and sentences in English. If you read and study
this guide, I am completely confident that you will be able to conceptualize and classify any
word, phrase, clause or sentence that you come across.

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