THE SENTENCE:The basics

A sentence must: Be an independent clause (a complete

thought that doesn’t begin with a conjunction.)

Include a subject and verb.

Most simple sentences follow this basic structure: We love grammar! We love grammarSubject verb object

The subject does the verb.The object is the recipient of the verb.

Find the subject and verb: She bought a dog.

He waited quietly.

They laugh out loud.

The complete subject may include adjectives or other modifiers. I alone love grammar.

I alone love grammarSubject Verb object

The subject or verb may be compound (more than one).

My students and I love and worship grammar!

My students and I love and worship grammar!Subject 1conj subject2 verb 1 conj verb2

Identify the subject and verb –each may be compound.

Jason and his brother liked the movie.

The mother cub and her baby ate the fish.

I will have a healthy salad and some greasy fries.

RULE: Prepositional phrases will not contain any verbs or subjects. These phrases begin with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun. These are the prepositions:

Aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, amid, among, around, as, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, but, by, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, onto, out, over, past, since, through, throughout, till, to, toward, under, until, up, upon, with, within, without

Make a prepositional phrase—remember: no verbs allowed. On the… At my… Into the… After the… Of the… Without a… During the…

RULE: A prepositional phrase may be in the complete subject. Ex: The cat at the window stared outward.

Find the subject(s), verb(s) and prepositional phrases:

Snowball and Henry wrestled on the couch.

They smacked and jabbed each other.

My mother and I saw this and laughed at them.

Other stuff may be thrown in: We truly love grammar! We truly love grammarSubject adverb verb object

Identify the subject, verb and adverb. He is only twenty.

She always locks the door.

The dolls stand straight.

Sometimes it’s a prepositional phrase (begins with preposition and ends with a noun/pronoun):

We love grammar as homework! We love grammar as

homeworkSubject verb object prep phrase

Find the subject, verb and prepositional phrase: We drove over the bridge.

I heard a great song on the radio.

We bought a teddy bear for Joshy.

It can be inverted into a question: Do we love grammar?Do we love grammarHelping verb subj verb object

Find the subject and verb. Why is the light off?

Did you bring the candy?

How many peanut butter cups are left?

It can become a subordinate clause if one adds a subordinating conjunction and adds a comma between the two clauses.

Although we love grammar, we don’t like homework.

Although we love grammarConj. Subj verb object

we don’t like homeworkSubj. Helping verb verb object

A subordinate clause can be at the beginning or end of the sentence, but cannot stand alone.

While we learn many subjects in school, grammar tops them.

While we learn many subjects in school, Conj sub verb obj. Prep.

grammar tops them.Subj verb obj.

Fragments are incomplete thoughts, often subordinate clauses, as opposed to independent clauses.

If we love grammar

If we love grammarconj subj verb object

Is it a fragment or a sentence? Why? Though she looks friendly.

Whenever I call him.

Get out.

If the sentence is a command with no subject included, you is the “implied subject”.

Learn grammar.

Write clearly.

Avoid fragments.

Find the subject and verb. Comb your hair.

Clean up your mess.

Do your homework.

There and here are never the subject. Here is a great grammar packet!

Here is a great grammar packetAdv verb subj.

Find the subject, verb and prepositional phrase:

Here are my keys.

There are my glasses.

Here on the shelf are leftover Halloween candies.