THE SENTENCE

I- Definition

By definition a sentence is a set of words, a unit of thoughts.

A sentence is a means by which one person tries to make clear to another, what he/she feels or
thinks…

II- Types of sentences:

They are three types of sentences. Among them, a simple sentence; a compound sentence; and a
complex sentence.

a- A simple sentence:
It expresses only one idea. A simple sentence contains one subject, one verb and one
predicate i.e a complement
E.g: someone knocked at the door

b- The compound sentence:

A compound sentence contains more than one idea. All the ideas expressed in a compound
sentence are on equal value.
e.g: someone knocked at the door and waited for an answer (here are two actions:
Someone knocked at the door. And waited for an answer)

c- A complex sentence:
It contains one main idea called the main clause and one or more second ideas called the
subordinate clauses (proposition subordonnée ou secondaire).
Eg:
1- As soon as he arrived at home, the man knocked at the door
Sub.clause main.clause

2- We know / that he was wrong

M.clause Sub.clause

III- Joining sentences:

The words which are used to combine sentences are called “conjunctions”.
The main conjunction used to form composed sentences are: And, but, so, whereas, yet, either… or,
neither…nor, as soon as, inspite of, in order to, in order to, however, despite, because of, even if, the
fact that…
Eg: both my wife and I went out yesterday
Not only he came let, but he made noise in class
He goes to school inspite of he is sick.

IV- Indirect Questions

In sentence containing indirect question the subject must always be placed before the verb but not
after the verb.
Eg: Direct Questions: where did I put my umbrella?
Indirect Questions: I cannot remember where I put my umbrella.
Direct question: where are you going?
Indirect question: he asked me where I was going (not, where was I going)

V- Tenses:
There are four main groups of tenses in End. The present tenses, the past and the perfect tenses, the
future tenses and the conditional tenses.

1- Present tenses
a- simple present: e.g: I work here
b- Present continuous: e.g: I’m working here

2- Past and perfect tenses

a- simple past present preterit: e.g: I worked here
b- Past continuous: e.g: I was work
c- The present perfect: e.g: I have worked
d- The pas perfect: e.g: I had worked

3- Future tenses
a- simple future:
b- future continuous:
c- future perfect:
d- future perf.cont:
e.g: I will work
e.g: I will be working
e.g: I will have worked
e.g: I will have been working

4- conditional tenses:
a- simple continuous:
b- conditional continuous:
c- conditional perfect:
d- conditional perf.cont:
e.g: I would work
e.g: I’d be working
e.g: I’d have worked
e.g: I’d have been working
 VI- Sequences of tenses
We can distinguish there main types of sequences of tenses in English.
Type (1): when the main verb is in the past all dependent verbs must be in the past too.
e.g: he phoned to say, he couldn’t come.
She thought he was right
Type (2): after the words: when, before, until, as soon as, less, after, we don’t use the simple
future tense. these words should be followed by the simple present or the present perfect
tense.
e.g: I shall let you know when I see him.
We will remain in class, until we finish our work
He will get very angry as soon as he hears about this.
Type (3): clauses with if
We can distinguish three basic forms.
 Form (1):
when the verb of the main clause is in simple present future, the verb of the
Sub.clause is in the simple present tense.
e.g: if she invites me / I will go
Sub.clause main.cl

if you blame her, she will return back.

Sub.clause main.clause

if she invites me / I will accept

Sub.clause main.clause

 Form (2):
When the verb of the main clause is in the simple conditional, the verb of the
Sub.clause is in the simple past tense.
e.g: if he invited me / I’d go.
If you had a let of me / you’d marry her.
Sub.clause main.clause

If he invited me to go out / I wouldn’t accept

Sub.clause main. Clause

He would marry her if He had much money.

Sub.clause main.clause

 Form (3):
When the verb of the Sub.clause is in the past perfect.
e.g: if he had invited me / I would have gone.

I would have gone, if he had invited me

 Tense in the main clause Examples Tense in the subordinate
clause
Present He thinks that it will rain Future

Past He thought that it would rain Simple conditional

Present He sees that he has made a mistake Present perfect

Past He saw that he had made mistake Past perfect

Present I work so hard that I’m always tired Present

Past I worked so hard that I was tired Past

Present perfect He has done all that is necessary Present

Past perfect He had done all that was necessary Past

Present He says that he is eating it Present continuous

Past He said that he was eating it Present continuous

Note: A clause can’t be followed be an infinitive and these infinitives are not affected by the above
rul.
e.g: we want to go to P/N (the infinitive doesn’t change).

VII- Word-order

To write and speak good English we must use only correct grammatical forms and appropriate
vocabulary but also correct word-order.
The basic pattern is: subject / verb / object
As closely as possible, though there are entrain exceptions. A subject many only be separated from
its verb by an adverb of frequency. There are some most important; generally, sometimes, often,
frequently, rarely, seldom, ever, never, always, usually, occasionally, already, constantly, still…
e.g: He found a coin in the ground yesterday
He rarely comes to visit us.
She often came to see them.
They always go to church on Sunday.
He sometimes comes by here.