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What Is A Sentence? (With Examples of The Different Types of Sentence)

A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought and contains a subject and a verb. There are four main types of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. Sentences can also be simple, complex, compound, or compound-complex depending on the number and type of clauses they contain.

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69 views

What Is A Sentence? (With Examples of The Different Types of Sentence)

A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought and contains a subject and a verb. There are four main types of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. Sentences can also be simple, complex, compound, or compound-complex depending on the number and type of clauses they contain.

Uploaded by

ThucNguyenNgoc
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What Is a Sentence?

(with Examples of the Different Types of Sentence)


A sentence is a group of words which expresses a complete
thought.

A sentence must contain a subject and a verb (although one
may be implied).
The Four Types of Sentence
There are four types of sentence.
A declarative sentence.
A declarative sentence states a fact and ends with a period /
full stop. For example:
o He has every attribute of a dog except loyalty. (Thomas P
Gore)
o I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a
weird religious cult.
(Remember, a statement which contains an indirect
question (like this example) is not a question.)
An imperative sentence.
An imperative sentence is a command or a polite request. It
ends with an exclamation mark or a period / full stop. For
example:
o When a dog runs at you, whistle for him. (Henry David
Thoreau, 1817-1862)
An interrogative sentence.
An interrogative sentence asks a question and ends with a
question mark. For example:
o Who knew that dog saliva can mend a broken heart?
(Jennifer Neal)
An exclamatory sentence.
An exclamatory sentence expresses excitement or emotion. It
ends with an exclamation mark. For example:
o In Washington, it's dog eat dog. In academia, it's exactly
the opposite! (Robert Reich)
The Four Sentence Structures
A sentence can consist of a single clause or several clauses.
When a sentence is a single clause, it is called a simple sentence
(and the clause is called anindependent clause). A sentence
must contain at least one independent clause. Below are the four
types of sentence structure (with their independent clauses

BEWARE THE RUN
ON ERROR

Once you have written a
sentence, you cannot put
a comma and carry on
writing. This is called a
run-on error or a comma
fault. For example:
I love the mountains,
they remind me of
home.
(run-on error)
I like pigs. Dogs look up
to us. Cats look down
on us. Pigs treat us as
equals. (Sir Winston
Churchill, 1874-1965)
Read more about the run-
on error (or comma
fault).

Read more about using a
semicolon, a colon,
ellipsis, or a dash to
extend a sentence.


THE SUBJECT OR VERB
COULD BE IMPLIED

In an imperative
sentence (an order) or
an interrogative
sentence (a question),
shaded:
A Complex Sentence.
A complex sentence has an independent clause and at least
one dependent clause. For example:
o Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggie" until you can
find a rock. (Will Rogers, 1879-1935)
o When you're on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.
(Peter Steiner)
A Compound Sentence.
A compound sentence has at least two independent clauses.
For example:
o Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of war. (William
Shakespeare, 1564-1616)
A Simple Sentence.
A simple sentence has just one independent clause. For
example:
o You can't surprise a man with a dog.(Cindy Chupack)
A Compound-Complex Sentence.
A compound-complex sentence has at least two independent
clauses and at least one dependent clause. For example:
o When a dog bites a man, that is not news because it
happens so often, but if a man bites a dog, that is news.
(John B Bogart)



See also:

What is the subject of a sentence?
What are verbs?
What is a declarative sentence?
When do you use periods / full stops?
What is an indirect question?
What is an imperative sentence?
What is an interrogative sentence?
What is an exclamatory sentence?
What is an independent clause?
What is a complex sentence?
What is a dependent clause?
What is a compound sentence?
What is a simple sentence?
Glossary of grammatical terms
the subject or verb may
be implied. For example:
Run!
Why?
SHORTEST SENTENCE

The shortest sentence in
English: "Go."


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