ENGLISH SENTENCE PATTERNS

What is Sentence?
Sentence is a group of words which begins with a capital letter and ends with a period,
question mark, or exclamation point, and consists of at least one subject and one verb.
There are four kinds of sentence: declarative, interrogative, exclamation, and imperative.
1. Declarative Sentence
A declarative sentence makes a statement. It ends with a period.
Example:
New York is one of the biggest cities in the United States.
2. Interrogative Sentence
An interrogative sentence asks a question. It ends with a question mark.
Example:
Is New York one of the biggest cities in the United States?
3. Exclamatory Sentence
An exclamatory sentence shows strong feeling. It ends with an exclamation mark.
Example:
What a big city!
The moster is attacking!
4. Imperative Sentence
An imperative sentence gives a command. Sometimes the subject (you) in this type of
sentence is understood.
Example:
Go to the big city and get a job. (You) go to the city and get a job.
Generally, English sentence patterns are of three types: simple, compound, and complex
sentences.

Simple Sentence
Simple sentence is characterized with the presence of simply one subject and one verb.
However, this type might also contain double subjects or double verbs.

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For example:
Joan is an English teacher.
Gery is an English teacher, too.
Joan and Gery are English teachers.
They work and spend time together.

What Makes a Subject in a Sentence?

Subject can be in the form of noun, pronoun, noun phrase, noun clause, gerund (-ing
verb), and to-infinitive.
TYPES OF SUBJECTS
NOUN

PRONOUN
NOUN
PHRASE
NOUN
CLAUSE

Concrete Noun
Abstract Noun
Uncountable Noun
Countable Noun
Adjective Noun
Noun Noun
Ing verb Noun
Past participle Noun
THAT clause
IF/WHETHER clause
Question Word clause

GERUND
TO-INFINITIVE

EXAMPLES
The table is round.
Happiness should be mine.
Water is important for our life.
The tables are here.
They came here yesterday.
The round table is in Marthas room.
Birthday parties are always my favourite.
This travelling bag is expensive.
The handwritten letter was on the table.
That the world is round is clear.
Whether he understands the matter or not is
not my business.
Why she left her husband is a big question to
us.
Walking through the night alone is dangerous.
To let her go is difficult.

What Makes a Verb in a Sentence?

A verb is a word that expresses an action or a state of being. There are three categories
of verbs: action, linking, and helping verbs.
Action and linking verbs are main verbs.
Helping verbs are not main verbs because they only help action and linking verbs.
A helping verb and a main verb working together are called a verb phrase.

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The following table will help you understand the kind of English verbs.
ACTION
VERBS
throw, swim,
fly, kick

LINKING VERBS

be, appear, seem, grow,

smell, become, feel

HELPING VERBS
Modal auxiliaries (can, may, must,
should, will, would, etc.)
do, does, did
will, shall
has, have, had

Sentence: I will eat the bananas.

will

helping verb

eat

main verb (action

verb)

will eat

verb phrase

Sentence: I have been feeling happy.

have been
feeling
have been feeling

helping verb
main verb (linking
verb)
verb phrase

Put a tick ( ) in a sentence.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Young children learn English as another language. ( )

How young children learn English as another language. ( )
Spoken language comes naturally before reading and writing. ( )
Understanding is always greater than speaking. ( )
Different language experiences with girls. ( )

Now, find some simple sentences in the reading text given to you in the previous lecture.
Decide which one is the subject and the verb.

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