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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

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