“All my life the early sun has hurt my eyes, he thought. Yet they are still good. In the evening I can look straight into it without getting the blackness. It has more force in the evening too. But in the morning it is painful. Just then he saw a man-of-war bird with his long black wings circling in the sky ahead of him. He made a quick drop, slanting down on his back-swept wings, and then circled again.” (Hemingway)
Sentence Parts
Sentences are building blocks of writing. A sentence is not just a group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period. A sentence must have three essential elements:
- subject
- verb
- thought completers (objects and complements)
To improve your writing, it is very important to recognize these three elements in a sentence.
Verbs
A verb is a part of speech that expresses an action or a state of being. If you are not sure which word is a verb, try changing the sentence in time. Add yesterday, today, or tomorrow in front of the sentence. The word that changes is a verb. Remember that some sentences have more than one verbs.
e.g. In the summer, Brian lives with his father. (today)
In the summer, Brian lived with his father. (yesterday)
In the summer, Brian will live with his father. (tomorrow)
Since the only word that changes is “live,” it is the verb of the sentence.
By form, verbs can be (1) simple, (2) compound, or (3) phrasal.
1. A simple verb – consists of a single verb.
e.g. He sleeps well. Kids play in the garden. Students work hard to succeed.
2. A verb phrase – consists of a helping verb(s) + an action verb (continuous, perfect, and perfect-continuous tenses and passive voice).
e.g. He has been sleeping for a few hours. Kids are playing. Students have worked hard to succeed.
Remember: that each verb phrase has only one action verb at the end, but it may consist of more than one helping verbs.
3. A compound verb – consists of 2≥ verbs or verb phrases joined with a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS).
e.g. Brian took the sack and opened the top. He has worked hard but is still poor.
Remember: When two or more verbs are joined with a coordinating conjunction, they function as ONE COMPOUND VERB in a sentence. So, both sentences above have one subject and one verb.
By nature, verbs can be (1) action, (2) linking, or (3) helping.
1. An action verb expresses action.
e.g. He jumps. Kids are playing. He has finished the work.
2. A helping verb is used to build verb phrases (tenses, passive voice). Two helping verbs are be (am/is/are/was/were) and have (has/had).
e.g. He would normally have said “no.”
Remember: In the verb phrase “would have said,” the action verb is “said,” and two helping verbs are “would” and “have.”
3. A linking verb doesn’t have any action meaning and serves to connect the subject with what is said about it. Common linking verbs are be (am/is/are/was/were), become, get, seem, appear, smell, taste, among others.
e.g. They are smart. It is getting dark. It seems right.
Remember: In the verb phrase “is getting,” the linking verb is “getting,” and the helping verb is “is.”
Subjects
Once you have identified the verb, you can ask the “who” and “what” questions in relation to the verb. The subject is the word or words that answer the question: “who” or “what” the action of the verb does.
If the verb of a sentence expresses action, the subject is who or what the verb does. If the verb is linking, the subject is who or what the verb describes.
Similar to verbs, subjects can also take different forms:
1. A simple subject – consists of a single noun or pronoun.
e.g. People are curious by nature. They enjoy asking questions.
2. A noun phrase – consists of one noun/pronoun and all descriptive words.
e.g. Many young adults attended the lecture. Very early in the morning, the exhausted man was awake and back to writing.
Remember: you will need to find a SIMPLE SUBJECT for your subject-verb agreement.
3. A compound subject – consists of 2≥ nouns/pronouns/noun phrases joined with a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS).
e.g. Very often, animals and their trainers don’t need words to understand each other.
Remember: When two or more nouns or noun phrases are joined with a coordinating conjunction, they function as ONE COMPOUND SUBJECT in a sentence. It is incorrect to say that two subjects form a compound subject. The above sentence has one subject “animals and their trainers.”
4. A noun clause can be the subject of the independent clause. For more information on Noun clauses, go to the handout Noun Clause.
Remember: If the subject of a sentence is a Noun clause, the verb is always singular.
Thought Completers
The last requirement of a sentence is having a complete thought. You may notice that most English sentences have three required fields. The first field is always filled with a subject and the second with a verb. The last required field is filled by a so called thought completer, which can take different forms depending on the nature of the verb.
The most common sentence structures in English are
- S+V+O (subject + verb + object)
- S+V+C (subject + verb + complement) and
- S+V+A (subject+verb+adverbial).
Types of Thought Completers:
1. A Verb Complement is a noun/pronoun that follows an action verb and answers the questions what/who or to/for whom/what.
- A direct object (DO) is the noun/pronoun that receives an action and answers the questions what/who.
- An indirect object (IO) identifies to or for whom the action of the verb is performed.
e.g. The teacher gave students (IO) the results (DO) of the test.
Remember: The most common word order in English is S+V+IO+DO.
2. A Subject Complement is usually an adjective or a noun that follows a linking verb and renames or defines the subject.
e.g. It is getting dark. That lady is a doctor.
3. An Adverbial of 1. Time, 2. Place, and 3. Manneris an adverb or an adverbial phrase that follows both action and linking verbs and answers the questions when, where, or how.
e.g. He came home. He came on time. He speaks fast.
Remember: Prepositional phrases often work as adverbials.
Writing Tips
When overused, simple sentences make writing look choppy and prevent ideas from running smoothly. It is very important to know how to use simple sentences effectively.
- Use prepositional phrases to express a single idea more efficiently.
- Use a lot of adjectives and adverbs to make your writing more descriptive.
- Use a variety of sentence structures.