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.
