SENTENCE

CONSTRUCTION
Prepared by: Josephine C. Maico
Learning Objectives:
 After reading this information sheet, trainees/students
MUST be able to:
 Define what a sentence is.
 Determine the part of a sentence.
 Define what a sentence fragment and a run-on
sentence are.
 Familiarize what the subject-verb agreements are.
 Write complete, grammatically correct sentences.
Sentence
A sentence is usually defined as a group of words that
express a complete thought. It always begins with a capital
letter and ends with a mark of punctuation.
In a more formal definition, a sentence is a set of words
that is complete in itself, typically containing a subject and
predicate, conveying a statement, question, exclamation or
command, and consisting of a main clause and sometimes one
or more subordinate clauses. –Oxford Dictionary–
Parts Of A Sentence
 Every sentence has two essential parts: the subject and the
predicate.
[Link] Subject of the Sentence
◦ The subject is the part of the sentence about which
something is being said.
◦ The subject is often a noun or a pronoun (Example: God love us.
He answers our prayers.)
◦ An adjective may also be used as a subject. It is preceded by
the article “the” and is followed by the plural form of verb.
(Example: The wicked are to be cut off. The meek will possess
the earth.)
◦ A gerund (the –ing form of the verb) may be used as a subject.
(Example: Preaching and teaching were Jesus’ main
preoccupation when he was on earth. Raising the dead was
one of his most outstanding miracles.)
◦ Adverb may also be used as subjects. (Example: Yesterday is but
a dream. Tomorrow is a vision of hope.)
[Link] Predicate of the Sentence
◦ The predicate is that part of the sentence that says
something about the subject.
◦ Example:
 People need spiritual nourishment.
 The Bible tells us all what we need to do to please God.
Types Of Sentence
 A sentence can convey a statement, a question, an
exclamation, or a [Link] are four types of sentence:
◦ Declarative Sentence – A declarative sentence states a
fact and ends with a period (full stop).
 Example:
 God created the first man,Adam.
 He gave him and his wife a beautiful home.

◦ Imperative Sentence – An imperative sentence is a

command or a polite request. It ends with an exclamation
mark or a period (full stop).
 Example:
 Please teach us how to pray.
 Read the Bible daily.
◦ Interrogative Sentence – An interrogative sentence
asks a question and ends with a question mark.
 Example:
 Who wrote the book of Revelation?
 What is God’s purpose for mankind?

◦ Exclamatory Sentence – An exclamatory sentence

expresses excitement or emotion. It ends with an
exclamation mark.
 Example:
 What a beautiful house!
 You’re such a liar!
Sentence Fragments
A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence and
therefore not grammatically correct. Some fragments are
incomplete because they lack either a subject or a verb, or
both. The fragments that most students have trouble with,
however, are dependent clauses – they have a subject and a
verb, so they look like complete sentences, but they don’t
express a complete thought. They called “dependent” because
they can’t stand on their own.
When you read a sentence fragment, you are left
wondering whom or what the sentence is about or what
happened in the sentence. You can change a sentence fragment
into a complete sentence by adding the missing information.
Run-on Sentences
A run-on sentence is a sentence that combines too many
independent clauses (full sentence) without proper punctuation
to create separate sentences or connecting-words. We call it a
run-on sentence because it “runs on” for too long without
pausing– it is missing commas, semicolons, or conjunctions to
clearly separate the ideas. Run-on sentences are also sometimes
called fused sentences because they “fuse” together complete
sentences but don’t do it the right way.
Sometimes, people call a very long sentence a run-on
sentence, but that’s not really accurate. Grammatically, a run-on
joins two or more complete sentence without using any
punctuation. Sometimes they are long, but sometimes they are
short.
Types of Run-on Sentences
1. The “comma splice” – happens when a comma is inserted
between two complete sentences where a period should
actually be used, or comma is being used rather than a
semicolon to join independent clauses.
◦ Example: Ivhan likes to cook, he makes chicken every day.
◦ This is a classic comma splice. “Ivhan likes to cook” is an
independent clause that can stand itself. “He makes chicken
every day” is also an independent clause that could stand
by itself. Joining these two clauses call for a semicolon, not a
comma.
◦ Correction: Ivhan likes to cook; he makes chicken every day.
2. A fused sentence mashes two main clauses together with no
punctuation at all.
◦ Example: Jasmin likes dog she has a beagle.
◦ This exemplifies a fused sentence: two independent clauses
written together without any punctuation or conjunction
to separate them. All that’s necessary to fix this sentence is
to insert the proper punctuation. Both of the following are
valid ways to rewriting the same sentence.
◦ Correction:
 Jasmin likes dogs; she has a beagle.
 Jasmin likes dogs. She has a beagle.
3. Polysyndeton – refers to the use of more conjunctions than a
sentence requires.
◦ Example: We went to the park and we ate dinner and we
got ice cream and when it got dark we chased fireflies.
◦ This is polysyndeton: the use of excessive conjunctions to
extend the length of the sentence. In this case, the word
“and” is overused. Sometimes, the overuse of conjunctions
like “and” is a deliberate rhetorical choice. Most of the
time, however, it’s a simple error with an even simpler fix:
divide the statement into separate sentences with a bit of
punctuation.
◦ Correction: We went to the park. Then, we ate dinner and
got ice [Link] it got dark, we chased fireflies.
Subject-verb Agreement
Subject verb agreement refers to the fact that the subject
and verb in a sentence must agree in number. In other words,
they both must be singular or they both must be plural. You
can’t have a singular subject with a plural verb or vice versa.
The tricky part is in knowing the singular and plural forms of
subjects and verbs.
Subject verb agreement doesn’t have to riddle everyone’s
writing with errors. The key to that is to simply follow the
subject-verb agreement rules.
Subject-Verb Agreement Rules
1. If the subject is singular, the verb must be singular too; If the
subject is plural, the verb must also be plural.
◦ Example:
2. When the subject of the sentence is composed of two or more
nouns or pronouns connected by and, use a plural verb.
 Example:
 Mary and Chrystal are honor students.
 Both teachers and office personnel approve of the
new policy.

3. When two or more singular subjects (noun/pronoun) are

connected by “or” or “nor”, use a singular verb.
 Example:
 Rachelle or Anne is the new class president.
 Either the boy or girl knows how to do the job.
4. When two or more plural subjects are joined by “or” or “nor”,
plural form of verb is used.
 Example:
 Neither the students nor the teachers like the new
schedule.
 Either the priests or the lay ministers read the gospel
for the day.

5. When a compound subject contains both a singular and a

plural noun or pronoun joined by “or” or “nor”, the verb
should agree with the part of the subject that is closest to the
[Link] is also called the rule of proximity.
 Example:
 The student or the committee members write every
day.
 The committee members or the student writes every
day.
6. The following indefinite pronouns are singular and take the
singular form of the verb.

◦ Example:
 One of the President’s men is here.
 Someone in the audience is the lucky winner.
 I will offer a gift card to everybody who participates in
the study.
7. The plural indefinite pronouns such as “both”, “several”, “few”,
“many” takes plural verbs.
 Example:
 Both of his parents work.
 Several of the freshmen are taking two courses.

8. When the subject comes after the verb, as in interrogative

sentences and sentences beginning with here or there, be
especially careful to determine the subject and make sure that
it agrees with the verb.
 Example:
 Was the contest exciting?
 Were the contests exciting?
 Here is the book.
 Here are the books
Reference:
 [Link]
sentences-and-punctuation/
 [Link]
jectverbagreement#s-lg-box-19852453
 [Link]