Saturday, August 3, 2013

The Basics: Parts of a Sentence

As a writer, you actually have a lot of flexibility with how you write. At times, it is perfectly acceptable to break the rules provided that you have a good reason for doing so. Nonetheless, I believe that it is most important to learn all of the rules first, particularly since the rules provide clear guidelines for the use of proper punctuation. Once those rules are mastered, you will be in a better position to make appropriate choices about when and whether to break the rules. This article is written with the intent of describing the rules for writing sentences.

Basic Sentences

subject This is what the sentence is about. The subjects of a sentence must do something. The subjects can be alive or inanimate.
object This is the part of a sentence which has something done to it. As humans, we tend to think of objects as being inanimate, but in terms of grammar and sentence structure, this is often not the case. It is also worth noting that not all sentences will have at least one clear object.
verb A verb is an action word. The verb is what the subject actually does.

The following examples demonstrate the use of subjects, objects, and verbs in basic sentences.

example sentences: explanation
The boy ate the cookie. In this sentence, "boy" is the subject. What did the boy do? He ate, so "ate" is the verb. What was eaten? What was acted upon? The cookie was eaten, so "cookie" is the object.
The piano is in the basement. In this sentence, "piano" is the subject. What is the piano doing? It "is", which means it exists, so "is" is the verb. Where "is" the piano? What "is" the piano acting upon? The basement, so "basement" is the object.

In some cases, you may only have a subject and a verb.

example sentence: explanation
The bear slept. In this sentence, "bear" is the subject. What was the bear doing? The bear "slept", so "slept" is the verb. An object is not required.

An important thing to note about all of these examples so far is that they can all stand independently as sentences. However, when you string a collection of words together, this is not always going to be the case.

Phrases:

example phrasesexplanation
walking along the narrow path There is a subject, the narrow path, and a verb, walking. Why isn't this a sentence?
laughing at the situation There is a similar problem here. Laughing is the verb, and situation is the subject.

So I told you before that a sentence must have a subject and a verb. This is true, but it turns out that it is a little more complicated than that.

The subject must be doing something. It is not enough for something to be done to the subject. "Walking along the narrow path" gives us an action, walking, which is being performed, but who or what is walking? Who or what is "laughing at the situation"? As a result, the preceding examples are all phrases. They can not stand independently on their own because no subject is performing a direct action.

So how do we get a sentence instead of a phrase?

Clauses:

A clause contains a subject which is directly performing an action. Okay, now that you may think I've told you everything there is to know about sentences, here are some examples of clauses.

example clausesexplanation
while the boy was walking along the narrow pathThe subject is "the boy". The verb is "walking", and the boy is the one directly performing the act of walking. However, this still doesn't seem to feel like a sentence.
when her aunt asked for moneyThe subject is "her aunt". The verb is "asked", and the aunt is the one directly asking for the object "money". This also does not feel like a sentence.

So what is the problem here?

"Glenn, I thought you were going to tell me about making sentences! What did you forget to tell me now?"

There is only one more thing for me to tell you, and then you will have all of the tools you need to make proper sentences.

It turns out that there are two different kinds of clauses, subordinate clauses which are often called dependent clauses, and main clauses which are often called independent clauses.

type of clauseexplanation of clauseexampleexplanation of example
subordinate clause A subordinate clause contains a subject and a direct action, but it can not stand on its own. A subordinate clause depends upon a main clause to make it complete. While the boy was running through the forest
When the thunder and lightning finally stopped
These are incomplete thoughts. They can not stand on their own even though they each have a subject and a verb.
main clause A main clause contains a subject and a direct action which the subject is performing. In addition, it is able to stand on its own. A hungry bear came up and growled at him.
All of the trees had been washed away.
These are complete thoughts. They stand on their own because the subject is directly performing an action.

Combining one or more subordinate clauses and a main clause, you can make some sophisticated sentences.

subordinate clausemain clausecomplete sentence
While the boy was running through the forest,a hungry bear came up and growled at him.While the boy was running through the forest, a hungry bear came up and growled at him.
When the thunder and lighting finally stopped, all of the trees had been washed away.When the thunder and lighting finally stopped, all of the trees had been washed away.

Appositives:

An appositive is used to replace a noun. However, unlike a pronoun, it is used to specify and clarify the particular noun by adding additional detailed information about the noun. As a result, an appositive is a phrase which contains at least one noun. It is also possible to have more than one appositive describing the same noun. Appositives are placed either directly before or directly after the noun or phrase to which they refer. If an appositive is used in the middle of a sentence, it should be separated on both sides by commas from the rest of the sentence. If an appositive is used at the beginning or end of a sentence, it should be separated from the rest of the sentence with a single comma. In the examples below, I will put the appositive in bold and the noun that it clarifies in italics.

Bonnie and Clyde, the outlaws, are talked about even today.There may have been more than one duo with people named Bonnie and Clyde. However, those alternatives, if there were any, were likely not outlaws. This helps us know which Bonnie and Clyde we are talking about.
Many people enjoy playing basketball, a sport which requires both speed and skill to play competitively.This gives additional detailed information about the qualities necessary to play basketball.
While walking along the path at dusk, I saw three deer, one doe and two bucks, scamper off into the woods.This specifies the sex of the particular deer I saw.
A man wiser than his age suggested, Sam quickly became worthy of great respect.This provides additional information about Sam.
The car, a red Audi with Texas plates, sped down the street.This provides specific information about the car.

Now that you have an understanding of the different parts of a sentence and the various parts of speech, you have some of the fundamental tools necessary to begin writing well.

©2013 Glenn Alperin

This article may be used for individual reference purposes. It may also be used by educators in a classroom. If this article is cited as a reference in another work, the author would appreciate being notified of the article's usage. Any other usage not specifically agreed to by the author is prohibited.

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