Introduction: This page contains some basic information about sentence structure (syntax) and sentence types. It also includes examples of common sentence problems in written English. ESL students who understand the information on this page and follow the advice have a better chance of writing well. [Note to teachers/advanced students]
Definition: Linguists have problems in agreeing how to define the word sentence. For this web page, sentence will be taken to mean: 'a sequence of words whose first word starts with a capital letter and whose last word is followed by an end punctuation mark (period/full stop or question mark or exclamamtion mark)'. On the basis of this definition, some of the sentences written by ESL students (indeed by all writers) will be correct, and other sentences will be problematic. Good readers (English teachers, for example!) can quickly see the difference between a correct and a problematic sentence.
Subject/predicate:
All sentences are about something or someone. The something or someone that the sentence is about is called the subject of the sentence. In the following sentences the subjects are shown in red. Note how the subject is often, but not always, the first thing in the sentence.
* John often comes late to class.
My friend and I both have a dog named Spot.
* Many parts of the Asian coastline were destroyed by a tsunami in 2004.
* The old hotel at the end of the street is going to be knocked down to make way for a new supermarket.
* Sitting in a tree at the bottom of the garden was a huge black bird with long blue tail feathers.
* The grade 7 Korean boy who has just started at FIS speaks excellent English.
* On Saturdays I never get up before 9 o'clock.
* Before giving a test the teacher should make sure that the students are well-prepared.
* Lying on the sofa watching old films is my favourite hobby.
The predicate contains information about the someone or something that is the subject. The example sentences above are shown again, this time with the predicate marked in green.
* John often comes late to class.
My friend and I both have a dog named Spot.
* Many parts of the Asian coastline were destroyed by a tsunami in 2004.
* The old hotel at the end of the street is going to be knocked down to make way for a new supermarket.
* Sitting in a tree at the bottom of the garden was a huge black bird with long blue tail feathers.
* The grade 7 Korean boy who has just started at FIS speaks excellent English.
* On Saturdays I never get up before 9 o'clock.
* Before giving a test the teacher should make sure that the students are well-prepared.
* Lying on the sofa watching old films is my favourite hobby.
Simple subject/predicate:
As you can see from the example sentences above both the subject and the predicate can consist of many words. The simple subject is the main word in the subject, and the simple predicate is the main word in the predicate. The simple subject is always a noun/pronoun and the simple predicate is always a verb.
In the following sentences the simple subject is shown in red and the simple predicate is shown in green.
* My ESL teacher speaks a little Russian.
* The young girl with the long black hair fell from her bike yesterday in heavy rain.
* At the back of the line in the cafeteria yesterday was a large brown dog with a yellow collar around its neck!
* My friend and I are going on holiday together this year.
* Your mother or your father must come to the meeting.
* Sitting in a tree at the bottom of the garden was a huge black bird with long blue tail feathers..
Sentence types: One way to categorize sentences is by the clauses they contain. (A clause is a part of a sentence containing a subject and a predicate.) Here are the 4 sentence types:
* Simple: Contains a single, independent clause.
o I don't like dogs.
o Our school basketball team lost their last game of the season 75-68.
o The old hotel opposite the bus station in the center of the town is probably going to be knocked down at the end of next year.
* Compound:
Contains two independent clauses that are joined by a coordinating conjunction. The most common coordinating conjunctions are: and, or, but, so.)
o I don't like dogs, and my sister doesn't like cats.
o You can write on paper, or you can use a computer.
o A tree fell onto the school roof in a storm, but none of the students was injured.
* Complex:
Contains an independent clause plus one dependent clause. (A dependent clause starts with a subordinating conjunction. Examples: that, because, although, where, which, since.)
o I don't like dogs that bark at me when I go past.
o You can write on paper, although a computer is better.
o None of the students were injured when the tree fell through the school roof.
* Compound-complex:
Contains 3 or more clauses (of which at least two are independent and one is dependent).
o I don't like dogs, and my sister doesn't like cats because they make her sneeze.
o You can write on paper, but using a computer is better as you can easily correct your mistakes.
o A tree fell onto the school roof in a storm, but none of the students was injured although many of them were in classrooms at the top of the building.
* Although it was raining, we decided to go fishing.
* If it doesn't rain soon, the river will dry out.
* Because the road was icy and the driver was going too fast, he was unable to brake in time when a fox ran into the road in front of him.
* Run-on sentences:
These are two sentences that the writer has not separated with an end punctuation mark, or has not joined with a conjunction. (Click the following run-ons to see where they should be separated into two sentences.)
o I went to Paris in the vacation it is the most beautiful place I have ever visited.
o It's never too late to learn to swim you never know when you may fall from a boat.
o If you're going to the shops can you buy me some eggs and flour I want to make a cake.
o I like our new math teacher, she always explains the work very clearly.
o He was late to school again, his bus got caught in heavy traffic.
* Sentence fragments:
Fragment sentences are unfinished sentences, i.e. they don't contain a complete idea. A common fragment sentence in student writing is a dependent clause standing alone without an independent clause. In the each of the following examples the fragment is the second 'sentence', shown in red:
o I don't think I'm going to get a good grade. Because I didn't study.
o She got angry and shouted at the teacher. Which wasn't a very good idea.
o He watched TV for an hour and then went to bed. After falling asleep on the sofa.
o She got up and ran out of the library. Slamming the door behind her.
o I have to write a report on Albert Einstein. The famous scientist who left Europe to live in the USA.
o After riding my bike without problems for over a year, the chain broke. 40 kilometers from my house!
Definition: Linguists have problems in agreeing how to define the word sentence. For this web page, sentence will be taken to mean: 'a sequence of words whose first word starts with a capital letter and whose last word is followed by an end punctuation mark (period/full stop or question mark or exclamamtion mark)'. On the basis of this definition, some of the sentences written by ESL students (indeed by all writers) will be correct, and other sentences will be problematic. Good readers (English teachers, for example!) can quickly see the difference between a correct and a problematic sentence.
Subject/predicate:
All sentences are about something or someone. The something or someone that the sentence is about is called the subject of the sentence. In the following sentences the subjects are shown in red. Note how the subject is often, but not always, the first thing in the sentence.
* John often comes late to class.
My friend and I both have a dog named Spot.
* Many parts of the Asian coastline were destroyed by a tsunami in 2004.
* The old hotel at the end of the street is going to be knocked down to make way for a new supermarket.
* Sitting in a tree at the bottom of the garden was a huge black bird with long blue tail feathers.
* The grade 7 Korean boy who has just started at FIS speaks excellent English.
* On Saturdays I never get up before 9 o'clock.
* Before giving a test the teacher should make sure that the students are well-prepared.
* Lying on the sofa watching old films is my favourite hobby.
The predicate contains information about the someone or something that is the subject. The example sentences above are shown again, this time with the predicate marked in green.
* John often comes late to class.
My friend and I both have a dog named Spot.
* Many parts of the Asian coastline were destroyed by a tsunami in 2004.
* The old hotel at the end of the street is going to be knocked down to make way for a new supermarket.
* Sitting in a tree at the bottom of the garden was a huge black bird with long blue tail feathers.
* The grade 7 Korean boy who has just started at FIS speaks excellent English.
* On Saturdays I never get up before 9 o'clock.
* Before giving a test the teacher should make sure that the students are well-prepared.
* Lying on the sofa watching old films is my favourite hobby.
Simple subject/predicate:
As you can see from the example sentences above both the subject and the predicate can consist of many words. The simple subject is the main word in the subject, and the simple predicate is the main word in the predicate. The simple subject is always a noun/pronoun and the simple predicate is always a verb.
In the following sentences the simple subject is shown in red and the simple predicate is shown in green.
* My ESL teacher speaks a little Russian.
* The young girl with the long black hair fell from her bike yesterday in heavy rain.
* At the back of the line in the cafeteria yesterday was a large brown dog with a yellow collar around its neck!
* My friend and I are going on holiday together this year.
* Your mother or your father must come to the meeting.
* Sitting in a tree at the bottom of the garden was a huge black bird with long blue tail feathers..
Sentence types: One way to categorize sentences is by the clauses they contain. (A clause is a part of a sentence containing a subject and a predicate.) Here are the 4 sentence types:
* Simple: Contains a single, independent clause.
o I don't like dogs.
o Our school basketball team lost their last game of the season 75-68.
o The old hotel opposite the bus station in the center of the town is probably going to be knocked down at the end of next year.
* Compound:
Contains two independent clauses that are joined by a coordinating conjunction. The most common coordinating conjunctions are: and, or, but, so.)
o I don't like dogs, and my sister doesn't like cats.
o You can write on paper, or you can use a computer.
o A tree fell onto the school roof in a storm, but none of the students was injured.
* Complex:
Contains an independent clause plus one dependent clause. (A dependent clause starts with a subordinating conjunction. Examples: that, because, although, where, which, since.)
o I don't like dogs that bark at me when I go past.
o You can write on paper, although a computer is better.
o None of the students were injured when the tree fell through the school roof.
* Compound-complex:
Contains 3 or more clauses (of which at least two are independent and one is dependent).
o I don't like dogs, and my sister doesn't like cats because they make her sneeze.
o You can write on paper, but using a computer is better as you can easily correct your mistakes.
o A tree fell onto the school roof in a storm, but none of the students was injured although many of them were in classrooms at the top of the building.
* Although it was raining, we decided to go fishing.
* If it doesn't rain soon, the river will dry out.
* Because the road was icy and the driver was going too fast, he was unable to brake in time when a fox ran into the road in front of him.
* Run-on sentences:
These are two sentences that the writer has not separated with an end punctuation mark, or has not joined with a conjunction. (Click the following run-ons to see where they should be separated into two sentences.)
o I went to Paris in the vacation it is the most beautiful place I have ever visited.
o It's never too late to learn to swim you never know when you may fall from a boat.
o If you're going to the shops can you buy me some eggs and flour I want to make a cake.
o I like our new math teacher, she always explains the work very clearly.
o He was late to school again, his bus got caught in heavy traffic.
* Sentence fragments:
Fragment sentences are unfinished sentences, i.e. they don't contain a complete idea. A common fragment sentence in student writing is a dependent clause standing alone without an independent clause. In the each of the following examples the fragment is the second 'sentence', shown in red:
o I don't think I'm going to get a good grade. Because I didn't study.
o She got angry and shouted at the teacher. Which wasn't a very good idea.
o He watched TV for an hour and then went to bed. After falling asleep on the sofa.
o She got up and ran out of the library. Slamming the door behind her.
o I have to write a report on Albert Einstein. The famous scientist who left Europe to live in the USA.
o After riding my bike without problems for over a year, the chain broke. 40 kilometers from my house!
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