Grammar- Writing Mechanics: The Sentence

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.