Sentence
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
A sentence is a group of words that are put together to mean something. We sometimes call a sentence a "phrase", usually if the sentence is not very long. But a phrase is not a real sentence. A real sentence has a subject and a main verb. A subject is the noun that is doing the main verb. The main verb is the verb that the subject is doing. In English and many other languages, the first word of a written sentence has a capital letter. At the end of the sentence there is a full stop (American: 'period').
This is an example of a sentence:
- The dog is happy.
In this sentence, "The dog" is the subject, and "is" is the main verb.
This is an example of a phrase:
- "The happy dog"
There is no verb, so we do not know anything about the happy dog. It is not a sentence.
Another meaning of sentence is the punishment that a court gives for a crime, such as the time a person is put in prison for.
[edit] Types of Sentence:
- A simple sentence is one clause. (The dog is happy.)
- A compound sentence is many clauses. These clauses are joined together with conjunctions, punctuation, or both. (The dog is happy, but the cat is sad.)
- A complex sentence is one clause with a relative clause. (The dog, which is eating the bone, is happy.
- A complex-compound sentence (or compound-complex sentence) is many clauses, at least one of which is a relative clause. (The dog, which is eating the bone, is happy, but the cat is sad.
Sentences have different purposes:
- A declarative sentence, or declaration, is the most common type of sentence. It tells something. It ends with a full stop "." (The dog is happy.)
- An interrogative sentence, or question, asks something. It ends with a question mark "?" (Is the dog happy?)
- An exclamatory sentence, or exclamation, says something outside of the ordinary. It ends with an exclamation mark "!" (That dog is the happiest dog I have ever seen!)
- An imperative sentence, or command, tells someone to do something. (Give the dog a bone!)
