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Sentences can get pretty complicated, but understanding the basic parts that make them up, and how to identify them, will make writing good sentences much easier.

All sentences must have a verb, a subject (or one that is implied), and form a complete idea.

A verb, or verb phrase, constitutes the action or state of being in a sentence.  The simplest sentences around are formed of verbs:

No! Go! Stop!

In each of these, the subject was implied, as in: (You) stop!

A subject is a noun (person, place, thing, or idea) that performs the action or state of being in the sentence, such as “I” or “the dog” or “New York”.

So, we have sentences like I(s) am hungry (vp), or The dog (s) ran (v).

Modifiers are another sentence part.  Modifiers are describing words or phrases that add meaning to a sentence, like adjectives or adverbs.  So, you could have a sentence like this:

The small (m) dog (s) ran (v) quickly (m).

“small” modifies “dog”, and “quickly” modifies “ran”.  One explains what type of dog, the other, how the dog ran.

Also in sentences are prepositions and conjunctions, just as in parts of speech.  Prepositions are typically used in a prepositional phrase, which begins with a preposition and ends with a noun, like these:

at the park, up the hill, inside the house, through the dark woods, etc.

Conjunctions connect words, phrases, and clauses together, and come in two flavors: coordinating (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) and subordinating (despite, although, though, because, etc.).

To understand the use of conjunctions, however, we really need to know what words, phrases, and clauses are, and how to identify them.  Okay, maybe not words; you can probably pick those out.

Phrases, though,  are groups of words that don’t form a complete idea.  Often, we name a specific type of phrase by the part of speech is acts like. Here are some examples:

Adjectival Phrase: bright red (instead of “red”)

Verb phrase: was using (instead of “used”)

Adverbial phrase: in great haste (instead of “quickly”)

Clauses are a different beast.  Clauses contain a verb or verb phrase and a subject (which may be implied).  They come in two types: Independent (sometimes called the “main” clause) and Dependent (or Subordinate).  An independent clause could be a sentence by itself (called a simple sentence– more on sentence types later!), or part of a larger sentence.  A dependent clause must be attached to an independent clause; it cannot be by itself because of its subordinating conjunction.  Here are some examples:

Independent: I went to the store

Depdendent: Although I went to the store

You can see that the first is a fine sentence on its own, while the second seems unfinished.

For all the ways to connect clauses together, you’ll have to wait until Part 3, Sentence Types.

Parts of speech are also known as types of words, and there are 8 of them.  These are:

Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections.

Nouns can be defined as people, places, things, or ideas.  They can be concrete (able to be sensed or measured) or abstract (conceptual).  They are often preceded by an article (a, an, or the– articles are a type of adjective). Proper nouns are names and are capitalized.

Pronouns stand in for nouns we don’t wish to repeat over and over.  The noun that the pronoun refers to is called the antecedent.  A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number, gender, and case.  Pronouns can also show possession.

Verbs can be defined as actions or states of being.  They can be part of a verb phrase (multiple words expressing an action or state of being).  They also have twelve tenses (different ways of expressing time), and four verb parts: present, present participle, past, and past participle.

Adjectives are modifiers (words that describe, or modify, other words) that describe nouns.  Articles are also adjectives.  A and an are indefinite articles, and the is a definite article. Adjectives describe a “what?”.

Adverbs are modifers that describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.  Adverbs describe a “how?” or “in what manner?”.

Prepositions are location and time helper words, such as on, in, around, between, though, under, over, to, from, at, with, etc. A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun, and contains no verbs.  Many idioms (expressions that cannot be literally translated and retain their meaning) contain prepositions.

Conjunctions are words that join together words, phrases, and clauses.  They can be coordinating (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so; these words link items of equal weight or importance) or subordinating (these, like though, still, while, etc., link a dependent clause to an independent or main clause in a sentence).

Interjections are words set off by themselves with an exclamation mark.  These constitute expressions of strong feeling in single word sentences, such as Oh! or Wow!