📘GNS101. SENTENCE

 *SENTENCE* 

```What is a Clause?```

 *A clause* is a sentence that can stand *_alone_* containing a subject and a predicate with a finite verb📌 _(i.e it makes a complete meaning)_ 

 *EXAMPLE* 

i. He kicked the bucket✅

                      👇

You can see this is explanatory enough🤗

Let's see this:

i. After he kicked the bucket

                  🤷‍♂️

Does it make any meaning?

 *So that's a subordinate clause it does not convey a meaning* 

But this is a ```MAIN CLAUSE```

It has a complete meaning

A. *I came to eat rice and study my book*

                     👇

I came to eat rice is _independent clause_ 

Study my book is _subordinate clause_ 

****************************

So *SENTENCE* is a grammatical unit which contains a *subject*,*predicate* and expresses a complete thought, feeling or idea and *object*(optional)

Note: Not all sentence has an object but it must have a subject and predicate

****************************

➖➖➖➖➖⤵️➖➖➖➖➖➖➖

*SUBJECT*

This is the doer of the action🚴🏻‍♂️⛹️‍♂️,it can be a person👨🏻‍🏫,place🏨, thing⏰ or idea🧠.

The subject shows what the sentence is about or what it's performing an action in the sentence and it is mostly noun, pronoun or noun phrase/clause

 *EXAMPLE* 

A. *We* are watching Netflix

B. *The dog* barks

We can see that this sentence does not have object of the sentence

*The dog* is the subject (i.e the doer of the action *barks*)

➖➖➖➖➖⤵️➖➖➖➖➖➖➖

*PREDICATE*

This starts from the verb and include all other elements in the sentence, it says something about the subject.

It specifies what the subject is or does or has done to the subject

E.g She *talked*

The predicate can also be in form of a sentence

E.g 

i. Carbon dioxide *turns lime water milky*

ii. Industry *produces a large number of hazardous metal wastes*

So from *turns lime water milky* is a _predicate_ (It's telling us wat carbon dioxide does)

The predicate is the one telling us what the subject is doing

****************************

*OBJECT*

The object of a sentence is the person or thing that receives the action of the verb. The object completes the verb.

Many action verbs are transitive i.e the action must be done to something. The object tells what or who receives the verb's action.

E.g Moyo kicked the ball

What did Moyo kick? - Ball

So it was the ball that received the 'kicking '

****************************

××××××××××××××××××××××××××

*SENTENCE CLASSIFICATION*

××××××××××××××××××××××××××

Sentence can be classified by structure and by function

 We will be starting from classification by structure

 *FUNCTIONAL* ⏬

1. Declarative

2. Imperative

3. Interrogative

4. Exclamatory

 *STRUCTURAL* 🔽

1. Simple

2. Compound

3. Complex

4. Compound - complex

 🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳

*SIMPLE SENTENCE*

This consists of only one independent clause, it *has no dependent clauses* 

And I have explained the difference between dependent/ main clause and independent/subordinate clause

E.g 

A. The boy stole a pencil

This sentence has a subject "the boy", predicate "stole" and object "a pencil"

Note: not every simple sentence has an object

E.g

B. The prisoner escaped

This does not have a object

The subject is "the prisoner" who performed the action which is the predicate "escaped"

C. Nancy danced

This does not have object too

*HOW TO IDENTIFY A SIMPLE SENTENCE*

A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb and communicate a single and complete thought.

1. Identify the subject and the predicate:-

A simple sentence must have at least one subject (someone or something performing the action) and a predicate ( a verb or verbal phrase describing that action)

The prisoner and his friend escaped

The subjects are "the prisoner" and "his friend "

So a simple sentence can have my more than a subject

This has two subjects which made it a compound subject

But if you identify a subordinating conjunction then it's not a simple sentence but a compound sentence

 *Example* 

The boy stole a pen and gave it to his friend

I came to study but I am tired

2. Look for a conjunction 

You might have a simple sentence if a coordinating conjunction (and,but,or) joins two words or phrases that are equal parts of speech performing the same function in a sentence

Same function means both serving as subject

3. Note and mid - sentence punctuation: 

A simple sentence contains at most one clause ,but punctuation can indicate the joining of two clauses e.g a colon,a semi colon,or a coma paired with a coordinating conjunction appear mid sentence but if it's pairing of two independent clauses it's compound sentence

4. Check for complete thought:

 if the clauses ends with punctuation and needs no additional supporting material to communicate it's message

This means if it's an independent clause

You know independent clause has a complete meaning

So it's a simple sentence

In simple sentence,the length of the sentence does not matter. If it conveys a complete meaning,it's a simple sentence

She came home

This sentence is a simple sentence and makes a complete sentence

The car drove fast and erratically

This sentence has a single subject "the car" a single verb "drove" and a compound adverb "fast and erratically" modifying the verb

Hope you know the difference between adverb and adjective

Adjective qualifies noun or pronoun

E.g Mary is beautiful

Beautiful is the adjective qualifying Mary

The food smell and taste fresh

It has a single subject and compound verb

🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳

*COMPOUND SENTENCE*

This is a sentence made of two or more independent clauses , usually joined by a conjunction,it does not have dependent clause

The independent clauses are connected with coordinating conjunction

A compound sentence is easy to identify because they usually use a coordinating conjunction e.g for,and,nor,but,or,yet and so you can short it as FANBOYS

Compound sentences can also use a semicolon to connect two clauses,so in this case no conjunction is necessary

 *Example* 

First clause: The boy stole a pencil

Second clause: He gave it to his friend

We have two simple sentences here and are both independent clauses

So we are say compound sentence is joining of two simple sentences joined by coordinating conjunction

We can join this together by saying

The boy stole a pencil and he gave it to his friend.

 *Another example* 

I have a pet dog

His name is lucky

To join them to become a compound Sentence

I have a pet dog and his name is lucky.

We can also use semi colon

I have a pet dog;his name is lucky

*NOTE* : I have a pet dog whose name is lucky is not a compound sentence

This is not a compound sentence because to have a compound sentence it must have at least two subjects and two verbs but if they are sharing same subject it must be stated twice

E.g a quote from mother Teresa

I alone cannot change the world,but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples

The subject "I" was stated twice

I came here to eat rice and study my book is NOT a compound sentence

Y?

Because it has a subject and the sentence after AND i.e study my book is not an independent clause

So to turn it to compound sentence,we can add another independent clause with a second subject i.e 

I came here to eat and study my book,but I am tired

*Commas and punctuation in compound sentence when creating compound sentences*

There are two _punctuation rules_ to keep in mind

1) place a comma before the coordinating conjunction

2) If you are not using a coordinating conjunction, place a semi colon btw each clause

Also note ,use a lowercase letter to start the second independent clause only the first letter of the first clause is capitalized

🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳

 *COMPLEX SENTENCE* 

This is sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause

E.g leave while you can

Leave is an independent clause

It conveys a complete thought

While you can is dependent clause

While you can is dependent clause

I told you words starting with while,when,after Etc are dependent clause

Stay in the bathroom until the phone rings

Stay in the bathroom is an independent clause

Until the phone rings is a dependent clause

The dependent clauses start with subordinating conjunction e.g after,while etc or a relative pronoun e.g whose,whom etc

And contains a subject and verb but does not express a complete thought

E.g

We missed our plane *because we were late*

Our dog barks *when she hears a noise*

The bold sentences are dependent clause

He left in a hurry *after he got a phone call*

Examples of subordinating conjunction 

After, although,as, because, before,how,if,once,since,than,that, though,till, until when,where, whether,while etc

Note we can also rewrite all those examples

Until the phone rings,stay in the bathroom

Because we were late,we missed our plane

When she hears a noise ,our dog barks

After he got a phone call,he left in a hurry

Complex sentence can be used when as want to provide more information to support our point

This is one of the importance of complex sentence

It makes the sentence clearer

E g

The dog barks is a simple sentence but it does not tell us why,where,or how the dog barked

So we can write it in complex sentence as the dog barked when the squirrel jumped from the tree

We can see this is more explanatory

In complex sentence,the subordinate clause only makes sense in relation to the main clause

E.g Shade and get dog got wet after walking out in the rain

Shade and her dog got wet after walking out in the rain

After walking out in the rain only makes sense in relation to Shade and her dog got wet.

 *Written by;* 

           Miss Adesina Iyanu

✍️ *FLASHPEE EDUCATIONAL TEAM*