ENGLISH SENTENCE TYPES

• A sentence is a group of words that has a subject and a

predicate (predicator, object and complement) and
expresses a complete sense.
• There are two major ways of classifying sentences:
• The Functional classification
• The structural classification
• When sentences are classified according to their
functions and how they behave in conversations, we have
the following categories
 Declarative Sentences (Statement)
 Establishes a fact/provides information
 Ends with a full stop
 Starts with a rising intonation and ends with falling intonation
 Usually begins with a subject followed by a predicator
The man killed the snake.
The young man is my brother.
Interrogative Sentences (Question)
 It ends with a question mark
 It demands an answer or response from the listener in most cases
There are different types of sentences
 Polar questions (Yes/No questions): Usualy has the structure of subject-verb inversion
 E.g. Has he left for school?
 Will you be my friend?
 Other ways of answering polar questions include certainly, perhaps, I don’t know,
et.c
 WH Questions
 They are non-polar questions
 They start with wh-elements such what when, where, why and
how
 E.g. When did you come back?
 What is your opinion?
 Declarative Questions
 They have the same structure as statements
 They do not end with falling intonation in speech
 They carry question mark in writing
 They are polar in nature
 E.g You came by road?
 Alternative Questions
 Two or more options are presented
 The person being adresssed is expected to reply with one of
these options
 E.g Will you travel with me or stay at home?
 Should i give you a brand new car or a fully furnished house?

 Tag Questions
 Often appended to sentences that are not interrogative
 They demand that the hearer agrees with the speaker.
 E.g. He has gone, hasn’t he?
 They have not heard from him, have they?
 Rhetorical Questions
 They do not need any reply
 They are more or less forceful statements
 E.g. Can a child be wiser than their parents?
 Don’t they greet elders in your place?

 Imperative Sentences/Commands
 They give order to the listener
 They require the listener to respond to the order
 They amy end with a full stop or exclamation mark
 E.g. Go away from me!
 Exclamatory Sentences
 They are exclamations
 They express different emotions such as surprise, anger,
wonder, gratitude, disgust, et.c
 They sometimes express strong feelings
 E.g. What a match!
 Whao!
 Goodness!
STRUCTURAL CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCES
 The Simple Sentence
 It contains only one idea
 It contains ONLY one main clause
 It has no subordinate clause
 E.g. Akin threw the stone.
 The principal is punishing the students

 The Complex Sentence

 It consists one main clause and one or more subordinate
 They are not of equal grammatical status
 They are introduced by subordinators
We punished them because they did not cooperate with us
I saw her when she was sneaking out of the hostel
While others were reading, she was busy gossiping with her
friends

 The Compound Sentence

 It contains at least two independent clauses
 They are joined by conjunctions
 The clauses have a symmetrical relationship
 The traditional conjunctions/Coordinators are ‘AND’, ‘BUT’ and ‘OR’
 It can have up to three independent clauses
 The lady studied very hard but failed the test
 The man got some money and bought a car.
 He went to Lagos, bought an expensive gift and gave it to his
wife.
 Ellipsis is sometimes used to avoid tautology
 Comma can be used in place of coordinators
 Compound-complex Sentence
 Contains two/more main clauses and one/more subordinate
clauses
 I went to Lagos and bought my wife a beautiful gift because
she won an international award.
 The students spoke rudely to the teacher but the teacher did
not punish them as he thought he was suffering from
youthful exuberance.

 Multiple Sentences
 Contains three or more main clauses without a subordinate
clause
 He wrote a letter, addressed an envelope, stamped it and
posted it.
 They all ran out, carried all their belongings, tied their
wrappers and started shouting for help.
THE WRTING SKILL
• Writing is an attempt to represent speech graphically. There
are basically three systems of writing:
• Alphabetic (Phonemic Orthography)
• Syllabic (Each consonant-vowel combination has a separate
symbol)
• Word writing (each word or morpheme has a separate symbol
• Alphabetic writing is the form used in English, French,
German, Igbo, Yoruba, in most European and African
languages.
 THE WRITING PROCESS
• There are six basic processes/stages of writing
• STAGE 1: PRE-WRITING
 Brainstorming (alone or with others)
 Reading what others have alrready written (Review of
literature)
 Questioning
 Deciding the topic
 Conducting research on the subject matter
• STAGE 2: WRITING
 Have an outline
 Write the introductory paragraph (with a topic sentence and
thesis statement)
 Develop other paragraphs (the body)
 Write your conclusion
• STAGE 3: REVISION
 Read it to yourself
 Ask others to read it and see if they understand it
 Write a revised draft
• STAGE 4: EDITING
• Check your paragraphing to make sure each expresses an
idea
• Check spellings, grammar and other errors
• Cross out repetitions; correct ambiguous/confusing
utterances
• Quote and acknowledge ideas that are not yours
• STAGE 5: PUBLISHING AND SHARING
• Get your writing published/displayed to a reading audience
• Keep a copy for your records
• STAGE 6: ASSESSMENT
• This can be done by self, peer or teacher
 THE MECHANICS OF WRITING
• SPELLING
• Avoid spelling errors under these categories, especially
• 1. Wrong association of spelling with pronunciation
• Examples: imigration instead of immigration
exitement instead of excitement
govment instead of government
jealos instead of jealous
2. Confusion of words which sound alike (flower/flour,
check/cheque, fair/fare, pray/prey)
• 3. Spelling mistakes attributable to poor pronunciation
(bath/birth, ceased/seized, hear/heir, order/other, seat/sit)
• 4. Confusion of words with letters ‘ie’ and ‘ei’ (ceiling,
deceive, receive, receipt, thief)
• 5. Writing compound words as separate words
• Class room instead of classroom
• Eye sore instead of eyesore
• motor cycle instead of motorcycle
• shop keeper instead of shopkeeper
• 6. Mixing up British and American English (center/centre,
meter/metre, honor/honour, program/programme)
 THE MECHANICS OF WRITING (CONT’D)
• PUNCTUATION
• Punctuation marks serve the functions tonal variations and
pauses serve in spoken English. Good mastery and usage of
punctuation are necessary for intelligible written English.
• A woman, without her, man is nothing
• A woman without her man is nothing
• Crocodiles! Do not swim here
• Crocodiles do not swim here
• Let’s eat, grandpa
• Let’s eat grandpa
 THE MECHANICS OF WRITING (CONT’D)
• PARAGRAPHING
• A paragraph refers to a combination of sentences dealing
with a single theme and forming a distinct section of a piece
of writing.
• A paragraph refers to a combination of sentences dealing
with a single theme and forming a distinct section of a piece
of writing.
• It is the organisation of a continuous discourse into
appropriate segments to make it readable and meaningful.
• There is no rule guiding the length of a paragraph, it is
determined by the topic at hand and the expertise of the
writer.
• FEATURES OF A GOOD PARAGRAPH
• THE TOPIC SENTENCE: This is the foundation of the
paragraph. it identifies the main topic and attaches it to a
dominant impression. It is the sentence that states the topic
being discussed. It can be a statement or question. it can
appear initially, medially or terminally in a paragraph. It is
possible that a paragraph will not have a topic sentence.
• DEVELOPMENTAL SENTENCES: These are sentences
that illustrate the idea expresses in the topic sentence.
Devices such as illustrations, enumeration, exemplification,
reiteration and comparison are used to shed more light on
the ideas expreesed in the topic sentence.
• THEMATIC UNITY: Paragraph unity means that one
paragraph is about ONLY ONE main topic. this referes to
the harmonious relationship of ideas or the singling out of a
main idea. A paragraph is united when all of its sentences
have a direct relationship with the main idea and work
towards the same end.
• COHERENCE: Literally means “To stick together”.
coherence in writing means that all the ideas in a paragraph
flow smoothly from one sentence to the other. Proper
arrangement and development of ideas using cause and
effect, chronological order, explanation, classification, et.c.
Transitional words/phrases, repetition, pronouns are useful
in achieving coherence
 HOW TO DISPLAY PARAGRAPHS
• Indented Paragraphs: used in official correspondence and
student’s writing during exams and assignments. It entails
setting 4-5 spaces from the left hand margin of the paper,
giving a visual demarcations to unit of ideas written in the
text.
• Blocked paragraphs: This allows for each line of the
paragraphs to begin at the same margin line. Most
formal/business letters in many organisations.
• Headed Paragraphs:the use of headlines in announcing the
topic.They are used in reports, theses, dissertations, et.c