4 English Sentence Structure
How is an English sentence formed?
Do you want to know how? Stay tune to the rest of the video and learn with me!
(Intro)
Welcome back and welcome to Everything English with me Teacher Lochy!
How is an English sentence formed?
Every language has an underlying set of rules and English is no alien to that. This set of
rules is called grammar. For this video, we will be discussing specifically the rule behind
the structure of an English sentence, but before we learn the types of sentences according
to structure. Let us learn first the basic sentence elements.
Imagine a sentence as a string of a pearl necklace. Every pearl is an element or a word
that is added to make the sentence more detailed and meaningful.
The first element in a sentence is a Subject: A person, animal, place, thing, or concept
that does an action. Determine the subject in a sentence by asking the question “Who or
what?”
Another element is the Verb: Expresses what the person, animal, place, thing, or concept
does. Determine the verb in a sentence by asking the question “What was the action or
what happened?”
Then, we have a phrase group of words without a subject-verb component, used as a
single part of speech, meaning a phrase can function as a noun, verb, preposition,
adjective and adverb.
Lastly, is the clause: there are two types of clauses. One is an independent clause can
stand alone as a sentence. It contains a subject and a verb and is a complete idea. Two
is a Dependent clause: A dependent clause is not a complete sentence. It must be
attached to an independent clause to become complete. This is also known as a
subordinate clause.
Since we’ve already reviewed the sentence elements. Let us proceed to the main
discussion of this video. Here are the 4 English Sentence Structures. What are we waiting
for? Let’s start learning.
Starting with
1. Simple Sentence
A simple sentence from the name itself contains a simple subject and a verb, and
it may also have an object and modifiers. However, it contains only one independent
clause.
For Example,
She wrote.
The subject is she and the verb is wrote. You can add more phrases to give this
sentence more detail.
For example,
She wrote a letter.
A letter her is a noun phrase that functions as a complement.
2. Compound Sentence
A compound sentence contains at least two independent clauses. These two
independent clauses can be combined with a comma and a coordinating conjunction or
with a semicolon.
For Example,
She wrote a letter, and she sent it afterwards.
The two independent clauses are she wrote a letter and she sent it afterwards. The
coordinating conjunction is the word and.
3. Complex Sentence
A complex sentence contains at least one independent clause and at least one
dependent clause. Dependent clauses can refer to the subject (who, which) the
sequence/time (since, while), or the causal elements (because, if) of the independent
clause.
For Example,
She wrote a letter to the company because she wanted to request something.
The independent clause is She wrote a letter while the dependent clause is
because she wanted to request something. The subordinating conjunction is because.
If a sentence begins with a dependent clause, note the comma after this clause.
If, on the other hand, the sentence begins with an independent clause, there is not a
comma separating the two clauses.
For Example,
Because she wanted to request something, she wrote a letter to the company.
4. Compound-Complex Sentences
Sentence types can also be combined. A compound-complex sentence contains
at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.
For Example,
She wrote a letter, but she isn’t sure if her request will be granted because she
thinks it’s just a petty concern.
The independent clauses are She wrote a letter and but she isn’t sure if her request
will be granted and the dependent clause is because she thinks it’s just a petty concern.
And you’re all set!
Before we end this discussion, let’s do a quick wrap up!
Here are the 4 Types of English Sentence Structure
1. Simple Sentence = 1 independent clause
2. compound Sentence = 2 independent clauses
3. Complex Sentence = 1 independent clause + 1 dependent clause
4. Compound – Complex = 2 independent clauses + 1 dependent clause
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English. Enjoy Learning!