Parts of a Sentence

What are the parts of a sentence?

Nouns
Verbs
Objects
Adjectives & Adverbs
Determiners
Prepositions
Conjunctions
To begin we will talk about making a sentence
All sentences have 2 parts
1. The Subject (what or whom the sentence is about)

2. The Predicate (What the subject is doing or what the subject is)

When you put them together ,you will have a full sentence or a complete thought,
without both parts you don’t have a full sentence.
 An example
He cooks
1. The Subject is he
2. The predicate is cooks
He cooks the pasta
3. The subject is still: he
4. The predicate now has some extra words: cooks the pasta
Tip: we always have them in this order: subject + predicate
 The Subject
What is the subject?
The subject is always a noun, it tells us who or what the sentence is about, let’s
look at some examples.
The bird is flying - the subject is the bird
She is driving- the subject is she
The dog is barking at the gate- the subject is the dog
 The predicate
What is a predicate?
It tells us what the verb is doing!
The bird is flying - the predicate is the flying that the bird is doing
She is driving- the predicate is the driving that she is doing
The dog is barking at the gate- the predicate is the barking that the dog is doing
at the gate.
 More on the predicate
A simple predicate will have the verb, and/or the auxiliary or helping verb
The bird is flying
In a more complex sentence we might include something else in the
predicate, but it will always start with a verb and contain the object:
The bird is flying in the sky

(The bird )(is flying) + (in the sky)

In other words
(subject)+(verb)+ (object)
 In conclusion
The most basic parts of the sentence are

The subject + the verb + the object

Or
The subject + the predicate
The bird is flying in the sky
 Let’s practice
See if you can guess, what is the subject, what is the predicate?
The cat is drinking milk

She carries the groceries

They are going to buy a new house

 Were you right?
The cat is drinking milk
Subject (cat) + predicate (is drinking milk )
She carries the groceries
Subject (she) predicate (carries the groceries)
They are going to buy a new house
Subject (they) predicate (are going to buy a new house)
 More practice
Can you identify how to correct these sentences?
Plays in the yard the dog

Walking down the we are

Cooks dinner on the fire she

 Did you get it?
Plays in the yard the dog
The dog plays in the yard
Walking down the we are
We are walking down the street
Cooks dinner on the fire she
She cooks dinner on the fire

Remember the order is always Subject + predicate

Let’s talk about nouns
 What is a noun?

Always remember a noun is a person, place or thing.

The bird is flying in the sky

The bird and the sky are both nouns in this sentence
 Some examples of nouns
Person Place Thing

Molly New York City Mango

The captain Mexico Water bottle
Dr. Dawson Lake Ontario House
Flight attendant
 Singular or Plural
When you use a noun in a sentence you will have to decide if you’re talking about
one thing or many, singular or plural.
Singular Plural (s/es/ies/ves)

● Cat ● Cats
● Oven ● Ovens
● Sheep ● Sheep
● Glove ● Gloves
● Blueberry ● Blueberries (y changes to ies)
● Knife ● Knives (f changes to ves)
 There are two main types of nouns
We have common nouns and proper nouns, look at the common noun and its
proper noun equivalent.

Common nouns Proper nouns

● Author ● Lewis Carroll

● Movie star ● Marilyn Monroe
● Singer ● Rihanna
● Country ● Jamaica
● River ● The Nile
● Drink ● Coffee
● Company ● Adidas
● Dog ● Fluffy
 Let’s practice

Jamaica has many mountains, rivers and beaches.

How many nouns and noun types do you see?

Jamaica has many mountains, rivers and beaches.

Jamaica (proper noun, singular)

Mountains (common noun, plural)
Rivers (common noun, plural)
Beaches (common noun, plural)
 Let’s try one more

This restaurant serves the best pizza and different types of salads.
 How did you do?

This restaurant serves the best pizza and different types of salads.

Restaurant (common, singular)

Pizza (common, singular)
Salads (common, plural)
Welcome to verbs
 What is a verb?
Verbs talk about actions, states or things that are happening.
If you remember back to learning about the predicate you will remember that the
verb was the main part of the predicate because it tells us what is happening to
the subject.
The bird is flying
Flying is the verb and the action that the bird is doing, and it is also our predicate.
 What about tenses?
All verbs happen within time, and in English we have different structures to tell us
when the verb is happening. We will start with 3 basic tenses.

Present (add s in 3rd Past (add -ed) Future (will/going to)

person)

To walk/walks walked Will walk/is going to walk

To listen/ listens listened Will listen/is going to listen

 Some more examples.

Present Past Future

I walk to school everyday I walked to school last week I will walk to school tomorrow

I listen to music every morning I listened to music more when I will listen to that new album
I was a kid. when it comes out next week.
 Some other types of verbs: auxiliary verbs
The main type of verb is an action or state, but we also have other types of verbs,
auxiliary (or helping) verbs and modal verbs
Let’s start with auxiliary verbs

They are waiting for the bus.

In this sentence are is an auxiliary verb, it is helping us to describe the main verb
which is waiting.
 Auxiliary verbs
Auxiliary verbs are be, do, have, will
We’ll learn more about these later and how we use them but for now remember that
we use each of them to communicate different verb tenses, but they can also
function on their own as well.
For example:
I am swimming
The verb to be (am) is our auxiliary verb in this sentence, and swimming is our main
verb.
I am a chef
In this sentence the verb to be (am) is our main verb.
 More on auxiliary verbs
Let’s look at some more examples with auxiliary verbs be, do, have, will
Which verbs are the auxiliary and which are the main verbs?

She is singing in a competition

They didn’t buy the house

I will be working tomorrow

They haven’t arrived yet.

 How did you do?
She is singing in a competition
Is (auxiliary) singing (main)

They didn’t buy the house

didn’t(auxiliary)buy(main)

I will be working tomorrow

be(auxiliary)working(main)

They haven’t arrived yet.

haven’t (auxiliary)arrived (main)
In conclusion, auxiliary verbs help to tell us something about the main verb, usually what tense it is in.

Let’s see some more examples before we move on:

They didn’t sleep very well.

I haven’t eaten lunch yet.
We are having a party this weekend.
They will swim after dinner.
Let’s talk about modal verbs now
Modal verbs are a type of auxiliary verb, they help us to talk about the possibility,
ability, prohibition and necessity of the main verb.

We will come back to these later, but for now just know that modal verbs function
as part of the family of verbs as well, even though they don’t describe an action.
The most common modal verbs are:
Can Could May Might Shall
Should Will Would Must Have
 How do we use modal verbs?
Just like the other auxiliary verbs, we use the modal verbs before the main verb in
the sentence. Let’s see some examples:
You should go to bed early
She might like this flavour of ice-cream
We could eat dinner at five.
She can ride a bicycle.
 Important Tip about Auxiliary Verbs
One very common mistake for speakers of all languages is to add an auxiliary or
modal verb and to change the tense of the main verb.
Remember, when we use an auxiliary verb, it helps to tell us what tense we’re in,
therefore we don’t need to change the tense of the main verb.
For example:
She didn’t left school early
She didn’t leave school early
 Let’s practice!
What are the mistakes in these sentences?

They aren’t work today.

She didn’t studied for the test.

The cat hasn’t eat enough.

They should to practice more.

How did you do?

They aren’t work today They aren’t working today.

She didn’t studied for the test. She didn’t study for the test.

The cat hasn’t eat enough. The cat hasn’t eaten enough.

They should to practice more. They should practice more.

If you’re confused, we’ll come back to auxiliary verbs and modal verbs later for more practice.
Objects in more depth
 Constructing more complex sentences
Things are going to get a little bit more complicated now…

Remember in English we have basic sentences with a subject, a verb and an

object.

However, objects can be a little bit less simple.

We can have sentences which have more than one object, or even without
an object!
 Objects with transitive and intransitive verbs
In order to understand this better, we have to go back to verbs. We are now going
to learn 3 different types of verbs and their relationship with the object.

We have:

Transitive (monotransitive and ditransitive)

Intransitive

Linking
 Transitive Verbs
Let’s start with the first type- transitive. A transitive verb tells us what in the
sentence is affected. Or in other words, a transitive verb requires an object to act
upon.

Structurally, a transitive verb is a verb that is used with:

1. Monotransitive: Subject + verb + object

OR
2. Ditransitive: Subject + verb + indirect object + direct object
Let’s look at some examples to help it make more sense

This is the most simple type of sentences which is what we

started with at the beginning.
Monotransitive: Subject + verb + object
The dog likes her food.
The dog is our subject, like is our verb and her food is the
object.
This sentence uses like as the transitive verb and her food as
the direct object.
 Things are getting a little bit more complex now as we look at
Ditransitive: Subject + verb + direct object + indirect object

I’m giving the dog her food.

The direct object is the noun or pronoun that is receiving the action- in this sentence the food is
the direct object (it is being given).

The indirect object are the nouns or pronouns affected by the action, they are the recipients of
the direct object, in this case the dog.

Another way to look at it is, the indirect object answers the question to or for whom, to or for what?
 A little bit more on ditransitive
Common ditransitive verbs are:

buy, give, grant, lend, make, pass, send, serve, show, teach, tell.

Let’s see some more examples:

Sally showed Cynthia her homework.

The cat told the owl a story.

She bought me a bouquet of flowers.

Arnold taught the class math.

 Intransitive verbs
Now for another type of sentence, one with intransitive verbs. In simple terms, an
intransitive verb doesn’t require an object to act upon, it is the opposite of a
transitive verb because it can stand alone.

Let’s see some examples:

She was sleeping.

We read a lot.

It rained yesterday

He walks every evening.

 Intransitive verbs
Notice how the examples can’t be done to someone or something.

She was sleeping.

The verb sleeping is not done to someone or something, which is what

makes it intransitive. Notice how this sentence has no object.

The structure is:

Subject + verb + (prepositional phrase)

She was sleeping (in her bed).

 More on intransitive verbs
We can have other words after the intransitive verb telling us how where or when-
but they won’t become the object of the sentence- instead they will be
prepositional phrases. Take a look at these examples:

She was sleeping (in her bed).

We read (a lot at during the holidays).

It rained (yesterday and there was a flood).

He walks (every evening in his neighborhood).

 Let’s talk about our last verb type: Linking verbs!
This is exactly what is sounds like, linking verbs link or connect two parts of a
sentence, the subject and the subject complement.

She is an artist

(subject) + linking verb + (subject complement)

Linking verbs link the subject to a noun or an adjective, in this sentence the
subject complement is the noun “artist”
 More on linking verbs
Linking verbs are not action verbs as much as they are states of being, this
includes all forms of the verb to be, telling us what the subject is not what it is
doing: To be: are, am, is, were, was

States of being:

Act Grow Stay

Appear Prove Turn
Become Remain
Get Some
 Linking verbs
We also can include the 5 senses in our linking verbs if they help us to describe
the state of being of something:
Feel: This hat feels itchy.

Look: The tree looks bigger.

Smell: The cake smells delicious.

Sound: That cat sounds upset.

Taste: This ice cream tastes amazing.

 Let’s do a quick review of verb types
Transitive: Requires an object= monotransitive or She brought coffee
ditransitive

Monotransitive Subject + verb + object The dog likes her food.

Ditransitive Subject + verb + direct object + I’m giving the dog her food.
indirect object

Intransitive Subject + verb + (prepositional She was sleeping in her bed.

phrase)

Linking (subject) + linking verb + (subject She is an artist

complement)
Adjectives and Adverbs
 Introducing adjectives and adverbs
We’ve now discussed the two main building blocks of a sentence- nouns and
verbs. There is one more important block to create a sentence, that is: adjectives,
adverbs and determiners!
The bird is flying in the sky
(noun) (verb) (noun)

But what if we want our sentence to have more detail?

 Adjectives and adverbs
With adjectives and adverbs we can make our sentence more interesting, taking it from:
The bird is flying in the sky
(noun) (verb) (noun)
To
The blue bird is flying high in the sky
Notice how the sentence just got a lot more descriptive? That’s because of the added
adjective and adverb blue and high.
These words provide us with more description and more information.
 Adjectives
In technical terms, adjectives describe a noun, adding more detail and are usually
placed before that noun in the sentence.
For example:
I fed my dog a bowl of rice and beef.
I fed my fluffy golden dog a bowl of delicious rice and beef.
Fluffy and golden adds more detail to the dog I’m describing
Delicious adds more detail to the food
 Descriptive Adjectives
The most common type of adjective are descriptive, describing the quality or state
of the noun. Here are some examples:
Bored Beautiful Sensible
Tired Overwhelmed Dangerous Round Silly
Pink Fluffy Smooth Slimy
 Adverbs
Adverbs are a little different because instead of describing the noun they describe
the verb or action in the sentence. Later we’ll talk about the different types of
adverbs.
Example:
The golden dog ran down the street.
The golden dog ran quickly but carefully down the street.
Quickly and carefully are adverbs which describe how the dog is running.
 Types of adverbs
There are 5 main types of adverbs
Adverbs of manner - how a verb is done: happily, quietly, slowly, precisely

Adverbs of time - when a verb is done: today, early, soon, forever

Adverbs of place - where a verb is done: here, nowhere, somewhere, anywhere

Adverbs of frequency - how often a verb is done: often, sometimes, frequently, never

Adverbs of degree - to what extent a verb is done: extremely , incredibly, deeply, very
 Determiners
Determiners are similar to adjectives and adverbs because they also give us more
information about the noun- these modify, describe or introduce the noun.
There are different types, for now we’ll only talk about some of them:
Articles: a/an, the

Demonstratives: this, that, these, those

Quantifiers: (a) few, fewer, (a) little, many, much, more, most, some, any, etc.

Distributives: each, every, all, half, either, neither, only, both

Possessives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their, x’s (possessive ’s)

Numbers: one, two, three, etc.

 Let’s start with Articles
These are the words, a/an & the. There are two main types:

Definite Indefinite

(the) - used before a noun to indicate that the identity (a, an) is used before a noun that is general or when its
of the noun is known to the reader. identity is not known.

The dog is hungry A cat ate my food

 A little bit more on articles

A/an (indefinite) - not specific, or something you don’t already know

The (definite) - specific and something you already know or have already spoken
about.
Examples
There is a new boy in our classroom (we don’t already know him which is why
we use “a” here).
I ate the cake from last night. (we are talking about the cake which we have
already discussed at a certain point in the past, this is why we use “the”).
 Demonstrative determiners
We use these to show which objects are being talked about.

This (singular) something close to us That (singular)something far from us

These (plural) things close to us Those (plural) things far from us

This pizza is so good!

These breadsticks are so delicious, how are those fries?
 Quantifiers
These tell us how much or how many of something there is. We’ll look at these
in more depth later, but for now the most common quantifiers to know are:

Some many a lot of a few

(a)little much more most any

There are so many bears in that forest.

She has some money for you.
Can I have more cake?
 Distributive determiners
These are used to refer to a group or to individual people or objects within a group.

For example

All, each, every

Neither, either
Every book has to be put back on the shelf.

All children should have enough food.

I will have one of each flavour.

Neither of these things is a good option.

 Now let’s look at all of them together

Adjectives Words describing nouns Pink, fluffy, beautiful

Adverbs Words describing verbs Slowly, carefully, frequently

Articles Used to refer to the noun a/an the

Demonstrative Indicate which objects are this /that/these/those

being talked about

Quantifiers How much.many of something Some, many, (a) few

there is

Distributive Refer to group/individual Every, each, all

Can you identify them in a sentence?

Each person should have a few different colours of paint.

The golden dog always ate the food quickly.

That pizza shop always serves too much pizza!

Many people buy too many things every year on black friday.
 How did you do?
Each person should have a few different Each (distributive) a few (quantifier)
colours of paint. different (adjective)

The golden dog always ate the food the (definite article) ,golden (adjective)
quickly. always (adverb) the (definite article),
quickly (adverb)

That pizza shop always serves too much That ( demonstrative) always (adverb) too
pizza! much (quantifier).

Many people buy too many things every Many (quantifier), too many (quantifier)
year on black friday. every (distributive).
Now let’s get into prepositions!
 What are prepositions?
Prepositions most commonly tell us about where something is in time or space, or
they can also talk about the relationship between words in a sentence.

The bird is flying in the sky.

The bird is flying into the nest.

Both in and into are our prepositions in these examples.

 More on prepositions
There are a many different prepositions that you will see a lot in English, 3 of the
most common are:
Time (when): in on at

Place (where): in on at

Movement (how): to from into

 Examples of prepositions
Time (when): in on at
We are going on vacation in
August.
Place (where): in on at
I’m in my studio right now.
Movement (how): to from into
She is walking home from school.
Can you identify the prepositions in these sentences?

I took them to the beach.

She finishes work at 3pm.

The cat is sitting on the roof.

I will meet you at the corner.

 How did you do?
I took them to the beach. To (movement)

She finishes work at 3pm. At (time)

The cat is sitting on the roof. On (place)

I will meet you at the corner. At (place)

 Prepositional Phrases
A prepositional phrase is a group of words consisting of a preposition, its object, and any
words that modify the object

You might remember the term “prepositional phrase” from when we were learning about
intransitive verbs.

The example we saw was:

She was sleeping in her bed.

In her bed is the prepositional phrase.

For the final part of a
sentence we have
Conjunctions
 What is a conjunction?
A conjunction is a word that link, words, phrases sentences or clauses together, they
help us to make sentences more complex- without them our sentences would be
pretty simple.
For example, instead of having two sentences:
I like cooking. I like eating.
I like cooking and eating.

By using the conjunction and in this sentence we can combine the two short
sentences into one slightly longer sentence.
 Three main types of conjunctions
English has 3 main types of conjunctions that help us to create more complex
sentences.
Coordinating: allow you to join words, phrases, and clauses that are grammatical
equivalents.

Subordinating: allow you to join independent and dependent clauses together.

Correlative: are pairs of conjunctions that work together to connect words or phrases
that are similar.
 Coordinating Conjunctions
Remember these join words and phrases that are similar.
The most common coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so;
you can remember them by using the mnemonic device FANBOYS.
Some examples
She didn’t like pizza or salad.
They wanted to celebrate the holidays together, so they decided to book a vacation.
We didn’t read a lot last year, but this year will be different.

*Remember to use a comma when joining 2 independent clauses.

.
 Subordinating Conjunctions
These join independent and dependent clauses together, they often communicate
cause and effect, a level of dependency or some other type of relationship
between the clauses.

The most common subordinating conjunctions are: because, since, as, although,
though, while, and whereas.

The fruit was rotten because she left it in the sun.

She worked hard all day although she was sick.

Her Spanish wasn’t very good whereas she was completely fluent in English.

She always used her map since she didn’t know the city very well.
 Correlative Conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions join words, phrases or clauses that are similar, in other
words they show a correlation between two things.

Some examples are: either/or, neither/nor, and not only/but also.

Not only does he study every day but he also exercises as well.

She liked neither eggs nor tomatoes.

Desert was going to be either ice cream or cake.

 Let’s practice
Try to use one of the three conjunctions you learned in these sentences.
Coordinating (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and She wanted ice cream. She wanted cake.
so) They didn’t have a lot of money. They worked
hard.

Subordinating (because, since, as, I drank some water. I was thirsty.

although, though, while, and whereas.) She is tired. She got a lot of sleep last night.

Correlative (either/or, neither/nor, and not She is an amazing dancer. She is an

only/but also.) amazing singer.

I’m finished studying for my test. I’m finished

practicing violin.
 How did you do?
She wanted ice cream. She wanted cake. She wanted ice cream and cake.

They didn’t have a lot of money. They worked hard. They didn’t have a lot of money, but they worked
hard.

I drank some water. I was thirsty. I drank some water because I was thirsty.

She is tired. She got a lot of sleep last night. She is tired although she got a lot of sleep last
night.

She is an amazing dancer. She is an amazing Not only is she an amazing dancer but also an
singer. amazing singer.

I’m finished studying for my test. I’m finished I’m finished both studying for my test and
practicing violin. practicing violin.
 Great work!
You’re finished with Parts of a Sentence
Up next verb tenses!