Grammar - The Sentence


The Sentence
Introduction


What is a sentence?

 It is  It is a set of words that gives complete meaning
A sentence contain a 
subject and predicate
it can convey
a 
Statement
I am a student .

 Question
Are you a student?

Exclamation
What a surprise!

 or
 command
Write this down.



It also consist of 
a main clause 
and sometimes
 one or more
subordinate clauses




In this lesson we discuss how to write a  simple sentence and the constituents that collectively help to build a sentence

When writing a sentence first of all we
name
Something or Somebody

and then we write

Something

about that something or somebody 

                            name              something
 I                 am a teacher.
   I                  teach English.
            I                  work in St. Anne’s.
                               I                 am happy about my job.
                   Mr. Perera         is a teacher
                         My sister      waters the plants.
She                 works at an office.
                       They              are happy.
                      The book      is very interesting.

                                         


When we write about somebody or something we can write
either
Something about them

         I                am a teacher.
The book        is interesting.
                             They            are in the library.

or
Something done by them

                     I               teach English.
                    The cat   drinks milk.
                    They       are reading books in the library.

            
What we name first when writing the sentence is called 

 Subject
 and something we write about what we name first is called 

 Predicate

Therefore we can divide the sentence in to two parts

The sentence
  
     Subject                    Predicate


     My friend            is very good.
                 I                     study English.
    My mother            is a teacher.
               His friends           are in the garden.





Therefore a sentence is consisted with two parts
 They are
Subject and  Predicate

The predicate consists of
The verb and the rest of the sentence

My friend    is    good


                                   Subject        verb     the rest

What is the rest of the sentence?
Rest of the sentence is the other constituents that can be there in the sentence. They can be:
Compliments
 Objects
 Adverbials


                                   I study English.           Object

                 My mother is a teacher.            Compliment
           
           His friends are in the garden.       Adverbial
                                                                     


Let’s learn these constituents that can be there in a sentence one by one in detail in the other lessons.

Do the following activities.

Activity 1

Draw a single line under the subject and double line under the predicate in the following sentences.

  1.      My mother is in the garden.
  2. ·   My friend has lost her book
  3.     The birds sing
  4.    The small girl opened the big box.
  5.    The old lady went in to the shop.
  6.    The girl sang a beautiful song.
  7.    My father bought me a nice frock.
  8.   The queen of England was at the meeting.
  9.    The fisherman caught many fish.
  10.   The poor buy was hungry.
                                                Activity 2

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