English Grammar: Structure of Sentence

Student Name: Tho Huu Nguyen
Class: Composition 4
Essay Name: Sentence structure essay
Instructor: Ashley R.Lynd
Date: 2/12/14

Structure of Sentence

What is the most basic part of a sentence in English? Someone told me is vocabulary, but someone else also told me is grammar. However, expert writers showed me a different part. They don’t focus so much the vocabulary or grammar, they focus the types of the sentence, which making their writing correctly, interesting, and lively. Therefore, knowing how to use them is not only can be write a correct sentence, but also can be a good writer. In fact, the numbers of types of sentence are not more than the vocabulary or grammar; there are four types of sentence: The Simple sentence, the compound sentence, the complex and the compound-complex sentence.
The first type is simple sentence. The simple sentence is a sentence consists of an independent clause; it does not combine either a dependent clause or another simple sentence. The formula of it isn’t complicated; it is “SV” or “SVV”, “SSSVVV”, “SSVV”. For example, “I go to school”. In this sentence, having one subject is “I” and one verb is “go”. The sentence followed the formula “SV” and doesn’t have either a dependent clause or another simple sentence. Otherwise, the simple sentence can be become more complicated and various. For this example, “My sister, my friend and I speak and write English everyday”. In this sentence, there is three subjects are “My sister”, “My friend” and” I”; two verbs are “speak” and “write”. Even though the sentence combines many subjects and many verbs, it still has to follow the formula “SSSVVV”. In addition, the sentence doesn’t have independent clause, also doesn’t have either a dependent clause or another simple sentence. To summarize, the simple sentence can contain one subject and one verb or many subjects and verbs, but the sentence doesn’t have to combine dependent clause or another simple sentence.
The second type is compound sentence. This type consists of two or more simple sentences, and there are joined by a comma and followed by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so, or we can call them with the name “FANBOY”). The formula of this type is “IC, CC,IC”. To illustrate, “I will go to school, and my sister goes to work”. This example has two simple sentences with the first sentence is “I will go to school” and the second is “My sister goes to work”; both of them are connected by the connector “and” and the punctuation comma. In addition, the sentence only makes sense with comma in front of “and”, that is mandatory. Unless the comma is in the sentence, the sentence will not be right. In addition, we can use a semicolon for the compound sentence, like this example “A dog barked; a cat yowled”. In this one, we don’t use the “FANBOY”, yet this is still a compound sentence with two dependent clauses are “A dog barked” and “A cat yowled” and are connected by the punctuation is semicolon “ ;”. In this sentence, we can switch two sentences and the meaning doesn’t change: “A cat yowled; a dog barked”. Moreover, we can use only a comma, but ONLY when the simple sentences are being treated as items in a series, like this example: “The dog barked, the cat yowled, and the rabbit chewed.” .As we have seen, We have three ways to write a compound sentence and various way to change the sentence.
The third type is a complex sentence. This sentence consists of a combination of an independent clause and a dependent clause; they connected by connector that we call subordinating conjunction (as soon as, while, when, unless, even if….). The formula is “IC SB and DC” or we can switch the formula like “SB and DC, IC.” Following these formula, the dependent clause always goes with the subordinating clause even if we can switch the sentence or not. When the subordinating connects the independent and dependent clause, having comma stays in front of the subordinating. For example, “A dog barked because a stranger knocked the door”. In this sentence, it has one independent clause is “A dog barked “, and one dependent clause is “A stranger knocked the door”. They are connected by the subordinating conjunction is “because”. Especially, the complex sentence can switch the position of clauses, and the meaning doesn’t change, like this one: “Because a stranger knocked the door, the dog barked”. We changed the position of two clauses, but the meaning doesn’t change. On the other hand, we can’t use semicolon or another punctuation that connect two clauses.
The last type is a compound- complex sentence. This type is a most difficult and most complicated, so we need very carefully when we use it. The formula is combination of a compound and complex sentence; therefore, we have lot of variety of ways to use this type. In this example, “When I went home, I felt hungry, so I cooked rice for dinner.” In this sentence, there are two dependent clauses are “I went home” and” I cooked rice for dinner”; one independent clause is “I felt hungry”; a subordinating is “When”, and one coordinating con junction is “so”. Formula for this sentence is “SB and DC, IC, CC, DC”. However, because this type follows the rule of the compound and the complex sentence, so we can switch the clause in compound sentence that the meaning does not change, “I felt hungry when I went home, so I cooked rice for dinner”. In this one, the sentence was changed the position between the dependent and the independent clause of compound sentence, but the meaning didn’t change.
In conclusion, with four types of sentence, we have a lot of different ways to write a sentence that making to the sentence is correct and lively. Knowing the types of the sentence is mandatory if the writer want to write a correct sentence. In addition, knowing well types of sentence will help the sentence more interesting and attractive.