SENTENCES

I. Definition: The sentence is the largest grammatical unit which expresses a complete thought or ideas has a definite grammatical form (one finite verb, one subject) and a certain intonation .

It could be said in another way that the sentence is a unit of speech which expresses a more or less complete thought and has a definite grammatical form and a certain intonation.

Every sentence shows the relation of the statement to reality from the point of view of the speaker (or writer).

Eg: This lesson is very interesting. Do you understand it?

One-word or abbreviated utterances can also be complete units of meaning, particularly in speech or written dialogue.

Eg: What! All right! Want any help?

Noise. People. Light. The city was awake.

The basic word order:

S (group) + V (group) + O (group) + Complement (group) + Adverbial (group)

Eg: The taxi driver shouted at me angrily in a loud voice.

They made him the chairman of the meeting every year.

Variations in word order:

+ Inversion of order:

Eg: Did you say that to your boss? (Question)

Should you see him, please give him my best regards. (Condition)

Never have I seen such a terrible accident. (Negative adverb at initial position)

+ Reporting verbs in direct speech:

Eg: “Look! There he comes!”, cried John.

+ Emphasis with adverbs, adverb phrases or adverb particles:

Eg: Last night, they went to the cinema.

Inside the box (there) was a letter.

Back came answer: “No!”.

II. Classification:

1. Classified by MEANING:

Declarative sentences, Interrogative sentences, Imperative sentences, and Exclamatory sentences.

a) Declarative sentences: are used when the speaker or writer wants to communicate something to the person addressed.

They express some statement in the affirmative or negative form.

Eg: The book has been translated into English.

I haven’t seen that film.

b) Interrogative sentences: When using an interrogative sentence, the speaker or writer wants to know a certain thought, idea or confirm a thought or idea previously expressed (to ask question).

(1) General Questions or “Yes/No” Questions:

- They ask whether the relation between the subject and

the predicate is positive or negative.

- They require the answer :Yes or No.

- Intonation: Rising.

Eg: Do you understand it now?

Must I leave now? Will you go to the cinema with us?

(2) “WH” questions (Special questions):

- Begin with an interrogative word (Who, What, When, Where,…) which show what information is required.

- Refer to any part of the sentence.

- Intonation: Falling.

Eg: Who told you this? Where does he live?

(3) Alternative Questions:

- Indicate choice and therefore contain the conjunction “or”.

- Intonation: *Before “or” ==> Rising; *At the end of the question ==> Falling.

Eg: Must I leave now or later? Which do you prefer, tea or coffee? Will I do it or you do it yourself?

(4) Tag Questions:

- A tag question is a very short questions which is attached to a statement and repeats its meaning.

- Formed by means of repeating both the auxiliary and the subject of the preceding statement.

- If the statement is affirmative, the question is negative. If the statement is negative, the question is affirmative.

- Intonation: the statement ==> Falling. The question part is either falling or rising depending on the intention or implication or the speaker.

Eg: You are ready, aren’t you?

Ha can not swim, can he?

(5) Interrogative sentences are formed by means of inversion – partial inversion when only the auxiliary or modal verb is placed before the subject, full inversion when the whole predicate verb precedes the subject.

Eg: Has she come yet? Will he join us tomorrow?

(6) There is no inversion in special questions in which the interrogative word is the subject or serves as an attribute to the subject.

Eg: Who teaches you English? Whose book is there on the table? Which book is yours?

c) Imperative Sentences:

- The purpose of an imperative sentence is to introduce the person addressed to fulfill a certain action. It may be done in the form of a command, order or request.

- They are mainly implied to the second person and the verbs are in the form of imperative mood (infinitive without “to”).

- Intonation: Falling.

Eg: Tell him to come at once. Come here, please.

- In lively speech, an imperative sentence may contain no verb but only a noun, an adverb, a prepositional phrase, etc.

Eg: The sugar, please! All aboard! Forward to new victory!

d) Exclamatory Sentences:

- Any of above kinds of sentences (declarative, interrogative, imperative) may become emotional and express different emotional states: joy, grief, astonishment, etc. The intonation is varied depending on different types of feeling and sentiment.

Eg: Mother has come! Open the door immediately! What a bright boy he is! What dark!

- Sometimes, Exclamatory Sentences have a special structure, they begin with an exclamatory word (What, How, etc.). The word emphasized by speaker is placed after the exclamatory word (except when the emphasized word is the predicate of the sentence, which remains in its usual place after the subject).

- There is no inversion in the exclamatory sentences.

- The exclamatory “How” (an adverb) emphasize a verb, an adjective or an adverb; “What”(a pronoun) is used with reference to a noun.

Eg: How well she writes! What a beautiful girl she is! What a delight evening we have had!

2) Classified by STRUCTURE:

1 - The Simple Sentence:

- is the smallest sentence unit.

- normally has one finite verb. It has a subject and a predicate.

There are 8 simple sentence patterns:

1. S + V

Eg: My legs hurt. The time has come.

2. S + V + C

Eg: She is beautiful. It tastes delicious.

3. S + V + DO

Eg: He wants a new hat. We enjoy the good meal.

4. S + V + A

Eg: They are in the classroom. They worked hard in the field.

5. S + V + IO + DO

Eg: He gave her a nice present. She bought me a new shirt.

6. S + V + O + C

Eg: They appointed him the chairman of the meeting. The boss made her redundant.

7. S + V + O + A

Eg: She read book in the library. He planted some flowers in the garden.

8. S + V + O + C + A

Eg: The girl made him happy often. He made her happy all his life.

(S: Subject; V: Verb; O: Object; A: Adverbial; C: Complement)

Anyway, we can add adjectives or adverbs to such above patterns to make extended simple sentences.

2 - The compound Sentence: consists of two or more independent sentences connected by means of coordination. Each independent sentence is called independent clause and can stand on its own.

The following coordinative conjunctions (and adverbs) connect the clauses of a compound sentence:

a) Copulative: and; not only…but also…; neither…nor…; now; then; and other;

The copulative conjunctions express that two ideas are connected:

Eg: He opened the windows and the room was flooded with the sunlight.

Not only was the boy glad but also his parents were happy.

Neither the moon was visible in this dark night nor were the stars.

b) Disjunctive: or; otherwise; else; either…or…; etc.

Disjunctive conjunctions indicate choices:

Eg: We must hurry or we will miss the train.

You must carry your raincoat along, otherwise you will get wet in the rain.

Either you speak clearly or I do not understand what you say.

c) Adversative: but; yet; still; however; nevertheless; etc.

Adversative conjunctions denote that two ideas contradict (contrast) each other:

Eg: You can go through the forest, but you may get lost.

I tried to persuade her to stay, still she would insist on leaving at such a late hour.

She repeated it three times, yet I could not understand what it meant.

d) Causal: for.

Eg: I could not buy it, for it is impossible for me to afford it.

We can not see the moon, for dark clouds cover the sky.

e) Resultative: so; there for; accordingly; then; etc.

Eg: It is getting late, the we had better go home.

She did not feel well for some days, so she decided to see her doctor.

f) Sometimes, the semi-colon is also used to connect ideas to form compound sentences.

Eg: We fished all day; we didn’t catch anything.

We fished all day; however, we didn’t catch anything.

3 – The Complex sentence: is a sentence which consists of a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses. The subordinate clause may either follow or precede the main clause. The functions of subordinate clauses are similar to those of the parts of a simple sentence. Accordingly, they can be classify into: Noun clauses (Subject / Predicate / Object), Attribute (Adjectival) clauses and Adverbial clauses.

Eg: Whether she came or not depended on the weather condition.

That is what we agree on.

I want to know how long she will stay here.

However hard I tried, I couldn’t remember her name.