WRITING MECHANICS: The Sentence
BASIC PARTS OF A
SENTENCE:
A sentence
needs to meet 5 basic requirement.
1.
Begin with a capital letter
2.
Have a subject
3.
Have a verb
4.
Express a complete thought
5.
End with terminal punctuation (period, question mark,
or exclamation point)
SUBJECTS
The subject
is the topic of the sentence, who or what the sentence is about. The subject will always be a noun—person,
place, thing, or idea.
What is the subject of this sentence?
The President signed
the bill.
VERBS
The verb is
the action of the sentence, what is happening in the sentence or what the
subject is doing.
What is the verb in the sentence ?
The President signed
the bill.
EXPRESS A COMPLETE
THOUGHT
In some
cases a subject and verb alone make a sentence complete. Sometimes, though, a sentence needs more to
make sense.
One extra thing it might need is an object.
There are
three kinds of objects: direct object, indirect object, and the object of a
preposition. A direct object is the
object that receives the action of the verb.
An indirect object receives the direct object. The object of a preposition follows a
preposition.
In our sentence
The President signed
the bill.
‘President’ is the subject because the sentence tells us something
about the President, what s/he did.
‘Signed’ is the verb because it is the action the President
performed.
Bill is what the president signed, so it received the action
of the verb. It is a direct object.
Now let’s look at the sentence
I gave him the book
on the table.
Who or what is the
sentence about?
The sentence is about me so ‘I’ is the subject.
What did I do?
I gave something to someone.
‘Gave’ is the verb.
What did I give?
I gave a book so “the book” is the direct object.
I gave the book to ‘him’ so
‘him’ is the indirect object,
receiving the direct object.
Practice: For each sentence, identify the subject, verb, direct object, and indirect object.
- Max asked Sally a question about the dance.
|
- I have told him the answer several times.
|
- The students ate their lunch in silence.
|
- I saw Alice in the hallway during the class change.
|
- Jim failed English last semester.
|
- TV audiences love reality programs.
|
- Mr. Shelley has inspired many students over the years.
|
- The policeman was shouting directions at the
motorists.
|
- Amy had a book from the library in her
locker.
|
- I forgot the answer to the question.
|
- Max brought Sally a corsage.
|
- The boy sent the girl flowers.
|
- Mrs. Webb serves her family a hearty
breakfast.
|
- A woman in the waiting room asked the man a
question.
|
- The teacher sent Alice a note.
|
- The prophet told the audience the future.
|
- He offered me money.
|
- The audience offered the cast thunderous
applause.
|
- He sent his girlfriend flowers.
|
- The grocer sold mother some lettuce.
|
There
is a third object known as the object of
the preposition. Prepositions are essentially connection words. They bridge
words to other words, usually to position the word in time, space, direction,
or relationship. The preposition and its object make up a prepositional phrase. The following is a list of prepositions:
The
following words are the most commonly used prepositions:
about
|
below
|
excepting
|
off
|
toward
|
above
|
beneath
|
for
|
on
|
under
|
across
|
beside(s)
|
from
|
onto
|
underneath
|
after
|
between
|
in
|
out
|
until
|
against
|
beyond
|
in
front of
|
outside
|
up
|
along
|
but
|
inside
|
over
|
upon
|
among
|
by
|
in
spite of
|
past
|
up
to
|
around
|
concerning
|
instead
of
|
regarding
|
with
|
at
|
despite
|
into
|
since
|
within
|
because
of
|
down
|
like
|
through
|
without
|
before
|
during
|
near
|
throughout
|
with
regard to
|
behind
|
except
|
of
|
to
|
with
respect to
|
Try
to locate all the prepositions in the previous practice and identify the object
of the preposition.
