previous / next
compound sentence:
is a group of words which has two or more ‘coordinate clauses’ connected by conjunctions, such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘not only…but also’ ‘either…or’, ‘neither…nor’, and connecting words, such as nevertheless, however, furthermore’, etc. e.g. He stood up and (he) walked to the door. ‘He stood up’ — coordinate clause ‘and’ — coordinating conjunction ‘(he) walked to the door’ — coordinate clause One important point we should remember is that in the ‘Compound Sentences’ the subject words and the conjunctions, when repeated, are not mentioned but understood. Though those words are not said or written, they are there; they are omitted only to avoid repetition! e.g. She saw me and she waved at me and she called out my name. = She saw me, waved at me and called out my name.
<<< Back to Sentence / Next Complex Sentence >>>
<<< Back to Kinds of Sentences
previous / next
Kinds of Sentences:
according to construction _____________ according to expression
1. Simple Sentence ______________ 1. Statement or Declarative
2. Compound Sentence ___________ 2. Interrogative or question
3. Complex Sentence ____________ 3. Imperative
4. Compound-complex sentence _____ 4. Exclamatory
‘according to construction’ = depending on the number of subject parts and predicate parts used in the sentence
‘according to expression’ = depending on whether some information given; a question asked; an order given, or a surprise , wonderment or fright expressed in the sentence.
Any given sentence must belong to any one of the kinds according to the construction, and any one of the kinds according to the expression.
e.g.
Are all the boys singing and (are) all the girls dancing?
This sentence is:
a Compound Sentence according to construction
an Interrogative Sentence according to expression.
<<< Back to Sentence / Next Phrases & Clauses >>>
[If directed from, back to "Direct - Indirect Speech" / back to "The Verb".>>>]
previous / next
Kinds of Sentences
[according to the construction]
Simple Sentence:
is a group of words which has only one subject part and only one predicate part (with only one main verb) of its own, and gives complete sense.
It may have any number of phrases but cannot have any other independent or dependent clauses.
Some grammarians prefer to call this simple sentence a “clause” which may not be accepted by everyone. One simple reason for not accepting is that a clause is a part of a sentence. In other words we call a group of words which has a subject part and a predicate part, and has complete sense of its own “a sentence”; and a group of words which has a subject part and a predicate part, and has complete sense of its own, and forms a sentence with other group(s) of words ‘a clause’. The difference is very clear. Therefore, a group of words which begins with a Capital Letter and ends with any one of the three punctuation marks “? ! .” is a sentence. Though it has the qualities of a sentence, a clause cannot be called a sentence because the subordinate clause, in particular, does not give us complete sense on its own.
e.g.
He is a teacher at our school.
He = one subject part; one subject word
is a teacher at our school = one predicate part; only one main verb ‘is’
at our school = a phrase in the predicate part
Some boys and girls are playing in the street.
Some boys and girls = only one subject part; two nouns – boys & girls
‘some’ is a determiner, like an adjective & ‘and’ is a conjunction
are playing in the street = one predicate part; only one main verb – ‘are playing’;
‘in the street’ – a phrase
<<< Back to Sentence / Next Compound Sentence >>>
<<< Back to Kinds of Sentences
_____________________________
previous / next
Subordinate Clauses:
Noun Clause: does the work of a noun or a noun phrase…
The common conjunction: that
e.g.
We never expected defeat. (‘defeat’ – noun)
We never expected to lose the match. (‘to lose the match’ — noun phrase
We never expected that we would lose the match.
‘We never expected’ — main clause
‘that’ – conjunction
‘that we would lose the match’ — subordinate clause
Adjective Clause: does the work of an adjective or an adjective phrase…
The common conjunctions are: ‘who’, ‘which’, ‘whom’, ‘whose’, ‘that’, etc.
e.g.
She is a famous woman. (‘famous’ – adjective)
She is a woman of great fame. (‘of great fame’ — adjective phrase)
She is the woman who has great fame. (‘who has great fame’ — adjective clause)
{more on Adjective/Relative Clauses}
Adverb clause: does the work of an adverb or an adverb phrase…
The common conjunctions depend on the kind of Adverb Clause.
e.g.
They started then. (‘then’ — adverb = at that time)
They started at sunset. (‘at sunset’ — adverb phrase)
They started when the sun went down. (‘when the sun went down’ — adverb clause – of time)
[‘when’ in this clause is not asking us any question; it is telling us the time at which they started]
______________________________
There are NINE kinds in ‘Adverb Clauses’.
Kinds of Adverb Clauses:
1. adverb clause of TIME:
shows the time at which an activity happened; and is connected to the Main Clause by one of the subordinate conjunctions –
when, whenever, while, after, before, since, as, etc.
e.g.
He was working when I saw him.
She went home after she had finished her work.
As soon as they’ve accomplished the task, they will go.
2. adverb clause of PLACE:
shows the place where something happened; and is connected to the Main Clause by one of the subordinate conjunctions –
where, wherever, etc.
e.g.
This is the place where I live.
Keep your bags wherever you like.
3. adverb clause of PURPOSE:
shows for what purpose the clause is used; and is connected to the Main Clause by one of the subordinate conjunctions –
that, in order that, so that, lest, etc.
e.g.
He worked hard so that he could get a good rank.
[what was the purpose of his working hard? = he could get a good rank]
We talked softly lest the baby should wake.
[what was the purpose of our talking softly? = not to wake the baby –
‘should’ is the only helping verb used in the Subordinate Clause when the conjunction is ‘lest’]
4. adverb clause of REASON:
shows the reason why the clause is used; and is connected to the Main Clause by any one of the subordinate conjunctions –
because, since, as, etc.
e.g.
He returned home early because he was tired.
Since it was raining, we stayed at home.
5. adverb clause of CONDITION:
shows what condition is to be fulfilled to get the desired result in the Main Clause; and is connected to the main clause by
any one of the subordinate conjunctions – if, whether, unless, etc.
['If' clause conditionals >>>]
e.g.
If you work hard, you will get good results.
They will not let you in unless you show your ID card.
6. adverb clause of RESULT:
shows what result is expected of the clause; and is connected to the Main Clause by any one of the conjunctions –
so…that, such…that, etc.
e.g.
The film was so good that it was rated the best of top ten.
He is such a fool that anybody can cheat him.
7. adverb clause of COMPARISON:
shows the DEGREES OF COMPARISON; and is connected to the Main Clause by any one of the subordinate conjunctions –
than, as…as, etc. {for more, go to ‘Degrees of Comparison’}
e.g.
My brother ran faster than your brother (ran).
8. adverb clause of SUPPOSITION/CONCESSION/CONTRARY TO THE FACT:
shows the opposite activity being done in the Main Clause; and is connected to the Main Clause
by any one of the subordinate conjunctions – though, although, even if, etc.
e.g.
Though it was raining heavily, he left home without an umbrella.
[It is a fact that people go out with umbrellas when it rains, but the person
in our example sentence left home without an umbrella which shows
contrary to the fact.]
He did not pass the test although he worked hard.
[It is a fact that people are successful when they work hard, but the person
in our example sentence did not pass the test which shows something
opposite to the fact.]
9. adverb clause of MANNER:
shows in what way something is done in the expression; and is connected to the Main Clause
by any one of the subordinate conjunctions – as, as if, as though, etc.
e.g.
He walked unsteadily as though he were drunk.
[The speaker of this sentence was not sure whether the person in
the sentence was drunk or not, but the way ‘he’ walked made
the speaker think that ‘he’ was drunk.
Notice that the Main Verb in the subordinate clause ‘were’ is used
with the 3rd person singular pronoun ‘he’ which normally takes ‘is’
in the present tense and ‘was’ in the past tense!
This usage of ‘were’ is to express a doubtful condition.]
_____________________________
A couple of important points…
The Position of Subordinate Clauses in a Sentence:
a subordinate clause may be placed either before or after or in the middle of a main clause…
e.g.
He failed the test although he worked hard. [after the Main Clause]
Although he worked hard, he failed the test. [before the Main Clause]
The boy who broke the window was punished. [in the middle of the Main Clause]
each of the subordinate clauses of the same kind is connected to the
Main Clause by any one of the conjunctions belonging to the same
group… [because, as, since belong to the same group showing REASON, therefore, any one of them can be used;
some of them, like as, may be found in other kinds of the adverb clauses]
e.g.
He returned home early because he was tired.
He returned home early as he was tired.
Since he was tired, he returned home early.
<<< Back to Sentence / Next Simple Sentence >>>
previous / next
Clause:
A CLAUSE is a group of words with a subject and predicate of its own, gives complete sense, and forms a part of a larger group of words called ‘sentence’.
e.g.
The boys are singing and the girls are dancing.
In the sentence above, we have two CLAUSES: ‘The boys are singing’
and ‘the girls are dancing’.
We say that the group of words ‘the boys are singing’ is a clause because it has a subject ‘the boys’ and a predicate ‘are singing’;
we say the other group is also a clause because it has a subject ‘the girls’ and a predicate ‘are dancing’, and these two clauses are joined
together by a conjunction ‘and’ to make a larger group of words called a SENTENCE.
This kind of Clauses which are joined by conjunctions like ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘not only…but also’, ‘either…or’, ‘neither…nor’,
and the connecting words, such as however, nevertheless, furthermore, etc. are called COORDINATE CLAUSES because each is an independent on its own, and is joined to the other one just to give a continuous idea.
If we disconnect them, each of them can stand on its own and give us complete sense. And the conjunctions joining them are called coordinating conjunctions.
e.g.
Boys play in the field and girls play in the park but teachers study in the library.
‘Boys play in the field’ – coordinate clause (1)
‘and’ – coordinate conjunction (1)
‘girls play in the park’ – coordinate clause (2)
‘but’ – coordinate conjunction (2)
‘teachers study in the library’ (3)
There can be any number of words and/ or phrases and/or clauses in a SENTENCE!
There are two broad categories of Clauses:
Main or Independent Clauses and Subordinate or Dependent Clauses:
e.g.
They started on their journey when the sun rose.
‘They started on their journey’ — main or independent clause
‘when the sun rose’ — subordinate or dependent clause
In the above example ‘They started on their journey’ is the Main Clause because
this group of words can stand on its own and give us complete sense. Without
the other group of words ‘when the sun…’, we can get the complete meaning.
The other group ‘when the sun rose’, on the other hand, is called a ‘Subordinate
or Dependent Clause’ because it cannot stand on its own, i.e. it cannot give us
complete sense. We do not know what happened “when the sun rose” without
the other group, the main clause; it is dependent on the other group of words to
give us complete sense.
The conjunctions that are used to join a subordinate clause to a main clause are
called ‘subordinate conjunctions’, and the most common of them are: because,
since, as, if, when, so that, as…as, etc.
The coordinating conjunctions are not included in the subordinate conjunctions.
Compare:
He went to the market but (he) did not buy any fruit.
‘He went to the market’ — coordinate clause
‘but’ – coordinate conjunctions
‘(he) did not buy any fruit’ – coordinate clause
He went to the market so that he could buy some fresh fruit.
‘He went to the market’ — main (independent) clause
‘so that he could buy some fresh fruit’ — subordinate (dependent) clause
There are no kinds in the main clause, except, of course, the COORDINATE CLAUSES, but in the Subordinate Clause we have three kinds.
<<< Back to Sentence / Next Subordinate Clause >>>
adjective/relative clause:
The adjective clauses are also called RELATIVE CLAUSES because they have an antecedent (a noun or pronoun they are related to) and the conjunctions, usually ‘wh-’ words and occasionally ‘that’, are called RELATIVE PRONOUNS.
e.g.
A boy broke the window. That boy was punished.
He was punished.
The boy who broke the window was punished.
‘The boy’ – noun = ‘He’ – pronoun — antecedent (a relative to ‘who’)
Were all the boys punished? = No. Only the boy who broke the window was punished!
‘Who’ in this sentence is not asking any question; it is telling us which boy was punished. So ‘who broke the window’ is an adjective/relative clause and ‘who’ is a relative pronoun.
‘The boy… was punished.’ is the main clause, and
‘who broke the window’ is the subordinate clause – RELATIVE CLAUS
A SPECIAL FEATURE OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS:
The Conjunctions of the Noun Clauses and the Adverb Clauses do not change according to the subject of the sentence or the object of the verb, but the Adjective Clause conjunctions which we call ‘Relative Pronouns’ change their form CASE of their ANTECEDENT —- subject of the clause or sentence, or the object of the VERB in the clause or sentence. depending on the
For more about CASE, please, go to the topic PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
“Who” is used for people in Nominative Case; “whom” for people in Objective Case; “which” for things in Nominative and/or Objective Case; “whose” for people or things in Possessive Case; and “that” for people, animals and things in Nominative and/or Objective Case.
For example,
WHO
This boy is very clever. He got a prize.
This boy who got a prize is very clever. [Complex Sentence]
‘This boy’ = ANTECEDENT (relative) of ‘he’ & “who”
‘He’ = 3rd person singular pronoun in NOMINATIVE CASE
‘who’ = RELATIVE PRONOUN in NOMINATIVE CASE.
______________________
WHOM
This is a boy. I gave him my book.
This is the boy whom I gave my book (to). [Complex Sentence]
‘a boy’ = ANTECEDENT (relative) of ‘him’ & “whom”
‘him’ = 3rd person singular pronoun in OBJECTIVE CASE
‘whom’ = RELATIVE PRONOUN in OBJECTIVE CASE
______________________
WHICH
[A]
The book was very expensive. He lost it.
The book which he lost was very expensive. [Complex Sentence]
‘The book’ = ANTECEDENT (relative) of ‘it’ & “which”
‘it’ = (a thing) pronoun in OBJECTIVE CASE
‘which’ = (for a thing) RELATIVE PRONOUN in OBJECTIVE CASE
_______________________
WHICH
[B]
This book is very expensive. It is very old.
This book which is very old is very expensive. [Complex Sentence]
‘This book’ = ANTECEDENT (relative) of ‘it’ and “which”
‘It’ = (a thing) pronoun in NOMINATIVE CASE
‘which’ = RELATIVE PRONOUN in NOMINATIVE CASE
____________________________
WHOSE
This is a boy. His book was lost.
This is the boy whose book was lost. [Complex Sentence]
‘the boy’ = ANTECEDENT (relative) of ‘his’ & “whose”
‘His’ = 3rd person singular pronoun in POSSESSIVE CASE
‘whose’ = RELATIVE PRONOUN in POSSESSIVE CASE
Note very well that the pairs of sentences given above can be joined together in different ways.
One way, for example, is to change them into Simple Sentences:
This boy is clever. He got a prize. [two simple sentences] =
This clever boy got a prize. [Simple Sentence]
This book is very expensive. It is very old. [two simple sentences] =
This very old book is very expensive. [Simple Sentence]
The book was very expensive. He lost it. [two simple sentences] =
He lost a very expensive book. [Simple Sentence]
Under ‘Special Feature’, we are given the examples changed into Complex Sentences using he Relative Clauses just to show how the Relative Pronouns take different forms depending on the CASE of their ANTECEDENTS!
____________________________________
TWO KINDS OF RELATIVE CLAUSES:
There are two main kinds (categories) of Relative Clauses. They are:
Restrictive Relative Clauses and Non-restrictive Relative Clauses
The Restrictive Relative Clauses are used when the Clauses are very important for understanding the sentence completely; and the Non-restrictive Clauses are used
when the Clauses are not very important for understanding the sentence completely.
The following examples will give us some clear idea of how and why they are used in a sentence at all:
The workers who lost their jobs are on the dole.
The Relative Clause ‘who lost their jobs’ in this sentence is very important to understand the sentence because not all the workers are on the dole; only the workers who lost their jobs are on the dole. Therefore, this Relative Clause is necessary in this sentence, and so, it is called a RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSE.
All the workers, including those who are not with us now, are given a pay rise.
The Relative Clause ‘who are not with us now’ in this sentence is not very important for understanding the sentence because all the workers are given a pay rise. The Clause is used just to include the absentees, without which we can easily understand the meaning completely. Therefore, this Relative Clause is not necessary in this sentence, and so, it is called a
NON-RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSE. Notice the pair of commas that separate the relative clause from the main clause.
Let’s see another example:
David’s son who has just done his graduation is going abroad.
In this sentence the relative clause ‘who has just done his graduation’ is Restrictive. How do we know? It is very simple: the clause is not separated by a pair of commas!
To put it in another way: David may have had several sons and the speaker is not talking about all of them, but only about the one ‘who has just done his graduation’.
Now see this…
David’s youngest son, who has just done his graduation, is going abroad.
In this sentence, however, the relative clause ‘who has just done his graduation’ is NON-RESTRICTIVE because the adjective youngest gives us the information about which son is going abroad. The relative clause is used to add some more information which is not at all necessary for the complete understanding of the sentence. The other thing, related to the punctuation marks, is that this clause is separated from the main clause by a pair of commas.
Compare:
Jane’s father who is a doctor visited us last night. [wrong]
In this sentence the relative clause ‘who is a doctor’ is wrongly placed as a RESTRICTIVE CLAUSE. This is wrong because Jane can have only one father; there is no possibility of her or anybody else, for that matter, having more than one father (biological father), but the restrictive clause makes it sound as if she had several fathers and of them one is a doctor and that “doctor father” visited us last night, which is ridiculous and wrong!
Therefore, this relative clause should be changed into a non-restrictive one.
How? Just by separating it by a pair of commas!
Jane’s father, who is a doctor, visited us last night. [correct]
Now let’s analyse these kinds from a different angle:
George who has joined us recently is transferred to another branch.
‘who has joined us recently’ = RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSE
According to this sentence, the listeners or readers know that there are more than one George in their office, and the speaker or the writer has made clear for them that he/she is talking about the ‘George’ who joined them recently but not the ‘George’ who has been with them for some time. Notice that the Clause is without a pair of commas.
George, who has joined us recently, is transferred to another branch.
According to this sentence, the listeners or the readers know that there is only one ‘George’ and that George has joined them recently, and so, the speaker or the writer has made it clear by separating this clause from the main clause by a pair of commas.
We are now in doubt as to how to differentiate the Restrictive and Non-restrictive Clauses when the expressions are spoken, but not written down.
The speaker, of course, has to make it clear by saying it with appropriate speech sounds (intonations); and by using the word “that” for the Restrictive Clauses.
Note that “that” as a relative pronoun is never used in NON-RESTRICTIVE CLAUSES.
Finally,
The trees that are marked are to be cut down.
The relative clause ‘that are marked’ in this sentence is clearly a RESTRICTIVE CLAUSE for two reasons: one is, the word ‘that’ is used as a relative pronoun and the other one is, the word ‘marked’.
[<<< Back to "subordinate clause" / <<< Back to "personal pronouns"]
______________________________
previous / next
Phrase:
A Phrase is a group of words which has no subject and no predicate of its own but gives some meaning on its own and forms a part of a large group of words which is either a clause or a sentence.
e.g.
Jane is standing at the table near the window.
‘at the table’ = a phrase ‘near the window’ = a phrase
In this sentence ‘at the table’ is a phrase: it gives us some idea where Jane is standing, but on its own it cannot give us complete sense, in other words, without the other group of words “Jane is standing…”, we cannot understand what this group of words stands for.
There are several different kinds of PHRASES – categorical and functional.
We, at this basic level, limit ourselves to some of the most important ones that help us in understanding the Sentence building.
The common kinds of Phrases are (categorical):
noun phrase
prepositional phrase
appositive phrase
absolute phrase
infinite phrase
gerundial phrase
participle phrase
Different grammarians use different names for the same kind or the function of a group of words; therefore, we are advised not be confused over the names given to it, but to pay attention to the actual function and the purpose it serves.
We will understand those differences better when we have learned the following simple rules and important points
The common kinds we discuss now are (functional):
Noun phrase
Adjective phrase
adverb phrase
The Noun Phrase: does the work of a noun…
e.g.
We never expected defeat. (‘defeat’ – noun)
We never expected to lose the match.
(‘to lose the match’ — noun phrase – with ‘to-infinitive’)
The Adjective Phrase: does the work of an adjective…
e.g.
he is a famous woman. (‘famous – adjective)
She is a woman of great fame. (‘of great fame’ — adjective phrase – prepositional phrase)
The Participle phrase: does the work of a participle…
[go-went-gone-going = ‘gone’ is the Past Participle form and ‘going’ is the Present Participle form of the verb word “go”]
e.g.
The thief jumped over the wall. He ran away.
Jumping over the wall, the thief ran away.
(‘Jumping over the wall’ — present participle phrase)
The noise frightened the baby. It started to cry.
(‘frightened’ — main verb – simple past tense) (frighten – frightened – frightened)
Frightened by the noise, the baby started to cry.
(‘Frightened by the noise’ – participle phrase (frighten – frightened – frightened)
For more on position of ‘Participle Phrases’, refer to SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT.
Adverb phrase: does the work of an adverb…
e.g.
He drove away quickly. (‘quickly’ – adverb)
He drove away with great speed.
(‘with great speed’ — adverb phrase)
SENTENCE
in grammar
Introduction
The word ‘sentence’, in general sense, has these dictionary meanings: ‘the punishment given to a person by a court of law’, ‘to say officially in a court of law that a person is to get a particular punishment’, but in English grammar:
“A sentence is a group of words which has a subject (one or more) and a predicate (one or more), and gives complete sense.”
When we write a sentence, we must begin it with a Capital Letter and end it with either a full stop [.] or a question mark [?] or an exclamation mark [!] depending on the context.
For example,
Stop. [= You stop.]
He is a boy.
She goes to school and (she) studies very hard.
I returned home early because I was tired.
Do you like this book?
What a beautiful garden it is!
The six groups of words given above are six complete sentences.
A sentence must have a Subject part and a Predicate part: a subject part must have a noun or pronoun; a predicate part must have a main verb.
e.g. Our children are playing in the park.
‘Our children’ — subject part – children – noun
‘are playing’ – predicate part — are playing – main verb
Next >>> kinds of sentences
___________________
