General English Grammar

 What is a Sentence?
It is a grammatical unit of one or more words that expresses an
independent statement, question, request, command, exclamation, etc., and
that typically has a subject as well as a predicate, as in John is here. or Is John
here?

 In print or writing, a sentence typically begins with a capital letter and

ends with punctuation.

 in speech it displays recognizable, communicative intonation patterns and

is often marked by preceding and following pauses.
 In simple terms, a sentence is a set of words that contain:
• A subject (what the sentence is about, the topic of the
sentence)
• A predicate (what is said about the subject)
Look at the following simple example:

subject predicate
You speak English

verb Com
• The above example sentence is very short. Of course, a
sentence can be longer and more complicated, but basically
there is always a subject and a predicate.
• Look at this longer example:

Subject Predicate
Sara and Ali speak English when they are working

verb Com.
• Note that the predicate always contains a verb. Sometimes, in
fact, the predicate is only a verb, so we can say that a sentence
must contain at least a subject and verb:
Example: Smoke rises.
• There is one apparent exception to this – the imperative. When
someone gives a command (the imperative), they usually do
not use a subject. They don't say the subject because it is
obvious - the subject is YOU!
• Look at these examples of the imperative, with and without a
subject:
 Stop
 Wait a minute
 Look
• Note that a sentence expresses a complete thought. Here are
some examples of complete and incomplete thoughts:

- He opened the door. Complete thought.

- Come in, please. Complete thought.

- Do you like coffee? Complete thought.

- people who work hard / incomplete thoughts.

-a fast-moving animal with big ears / incomplete thoughts.

• Note also that a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends
with a full stop or a question mark or an exclamation mark.
• Look at these examples:
 People need food.
 How are you?
 Look out!
 Types of Sentences
• There are four main types of sentences:
1- Simple or Declarative Sentence.
2- Command or Imperative Sentence.
3- Question or Interrogative Sentence.
4- Exclamatory Sentence.
 Declarative Sentences.
• These sentences are used to state information. They are the
most commonly used sentence type. Most academic writing
employs simple or declarative sentences.
Declarative sentences end with a period. For example:
 Research on the topic suggests that grammar is essential to
success.

 Imperative Sentences.
• These sentences give commands or make requests. Imperative
sentences end with a period. For example:
 Open the window.
 Interrogative Sentences.
• These sentences ask questions. Accordingly, they end with a
question mark.
• For example:
 Did you complete the assignment?

 Exclamatory Sentences.
• These sentences express emotion and, as such, end with an
exclamation mark.
 She is going to fall!
 Kinds of sentence according to clause

 Simple Sentence
• A simple sentence expresses one main idea as it has only one
subject and one predicate, for example, “Asmar was born in
New York.”

 Compound Sentence
• A compound sentence expresses two or more main ideas as it
has two or more independent clauses, for example, “It was
raining and we had no umbrella with us.”
 Complex Sentence
• A complex sentence contains one main clause and one or more
subordinate clauses as it expresses one main idea and one or
more less important ideas. For example, “She wept bitterly
(main clause), when her mother died. (subordinate clause).

• Important Note: In a complex sentence the subordinate clause

may appear at the end of the sentence. It may also appear at
the beginning of a sentence. e.g. She took a lunch because she
was feeling hungry. OR Because she was hungry, she took a
lunch.
 Compound-Complex Sentence
• A compound-complex sentence consists of at least two
independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses. It is
called complex-compound sentence. For example,

 She went to park and I went to college where I attended my

class. In above sentence there are two independent clauses;
“She went to park”, and “I went to college” and one dependent
clause “where I attended my class.”