Sentences, words and phrases
Sentences
A sentence:
- is built from a subject and a verbA 'doing' word; a word expressing action. 'Walk', 'talk', 'come', 'go', 'eat' and 'sleep' are all verbs.
- contains at least one main idea
- sounds complete
- starts with a capital letter
- ends with a full stop or equivalent
Subjects and verbs
In a sentence, the verb describes the main action or state of the subject. Different types of verbs have different functions:
- to show action, eg run, play, skip, discuss
- to show state, eg think, consider, wish
- to help out the main verb (auxiliary verbs), eg do, have, is
- to show likelihood or possibility (modal verbs), eg might, could, would, should
Verbs also show the time frame of the action (past, present, future):
- past, eg âthe ±«Óătv was founded in 1922â
- present, eg âhe finished his breakfastâ (action can be complete) or âhe is eating his breakfastâ (continuing)
- future, eg âthe Johnsons will celebrate Christmas in style!â
In most sentences, the verb comes after its subject. The subject is usually a noun (a person, place or thing), for example, he ran; their pet Siamese cat mewed.
Words and phrases
A sentence is built up from words. Sometimes words are grouped together in phrases.
A phrase acts as a single unit of meaning â for example âtheir pet Siamese catâ, âthe fast-paced Hollywood filmâ. A phrase does not include a verb.
You can tell if a group of words is a phrase because it can always be replaced by a single word, eg the phrase âpet Siamese catâ would be replaced by the single word âcatâ and still have the same basic meaning. We use phrases to add more detail to our writing.