Sentence Structures
Abbreviations:
S=subject
Active voice:
V=verb
S
S
Passive voice: O
V (action)
V (state of being)
V (to be + past participle)
O/C?
O
C
John drives a red car.
John is hungry.
(by S) The book was written by Mark Twain.
Q-word
Simple=I
An independent clause (I) has a S and a V and a complete thought.
Compound
S
C=complement
Questions:
SV
SSV
SVV
SSVV
V
O=object
Does John drive a red car?
Where does John live?
Mary eats lunch at noon.
Mary and John will eat lunch together. Mary or John will pick up the kids.
Mary ate lunch and read her class notes.
Mary and John ate lunch and talked about their kids.
I, c I
I; I
c=coordinating conjunction
FANBOYS
for and nor but or yet so
Mary ate lunch, and John studied his notes.
Mary usually eats lunch at noon, but she is fasting today.
Mary will make dinner tonight, or she will pick up the kids.
John studied hard, so he passed the test.
John studied hard, yet he failed the test.
Mary did not make dinner, nor did John.
Complex
ID
D, I
A dependent clause (D) has a S and a V, but it does not have a complete thought.
A dependent clause always begins with a subordinating conjunction.
Examples: if, because, although, after, before, while, that, since
Mary will pick up the kids if John cooks dinner.
If John cooks dinner, Mary will pick up the kids.
When the teacher arrives, we should stop talking to each other.
We should stop talking to each other when the teacher arrives.