Transcript Basic Sentence Structure

Basic Sentence Structure
This lesson comes from
Grammar Troublespots
by Ann Raimes.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.
Is it standard
English?
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the sun is shining.
They walk slowly and quietly
Watching themselves make steps on the white
sand.
You can hardly see any sand.
Because there are so many people and so many
umbrellas.
You can imagine walking on the white glittering
sand.
The feeling of cool sand running through your
toes.
Is it standard
English?
8.
9.
10.
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12.
13.
There is a big coconut tree.
Some leaves on the sand.
Is a St. Croix beach in the Virgin Islands.
The tree on the beach it is very big.
Shade from the sun some umbrellas provide.
On that beach, two people who are enjoying the
beautiful weather.
14. The sun shining.
15. The people who are sitting on the beach feel
very relaxed.
What is a sentence?
• A sentence contains a topic and a
comment about that topic:
– e.g. Babies cry.
• The topic is usually the grammatical
subject and the comment is usually
the grammatical predicate.
• A predicate contains a complete verb
that indicates time.
Sentence
fragments
1.
The soft, crashing waves and the shade
cast by a tall palm tree make this an
attractive spot. One that we would
really like to return to.
2. People are lying on the beach and getting
a suntan. Because it is a holiday. The
beach is packed.
3. On that peaceful beach, two young
people strolling along the water’s edge.
They look happy.
Required elements
of a sentence
• A capital letter at the beginning
• A period, question mark, or
exclamation point at the end
• A subject, stated only once
• A complete verb phrase
• Standard word order
• An independent clause
Usual word order
• Subject + verb + object/complement
– Children like cookies.
– He is a teacher.
– They look happy.
• Don’t separate verb and object.
– X He bought yesterday a new car.
• Put time expressions first or last.
Direct and Indirect Objects
• Subject + Verb + D.O. + to/for I.O.
– She gave her MP3 player to George.
– She gave it to him.
– X She gave it him.
• Subject + Verb + I.O. + D.O.
– She gave George her MP3 player.
– She gave him her MP3 player.
– X She gave him it.
Inverted word order
• Use Verb + Subject + Object/Complement
– in direct questions
• Do you want to come with us?
– in coordinate tags
• She likes swimming, and so do I.
– after negatives and “only”
• Never have I been so embarrassed!
• Rarely do we encounter such a problem.
• Only if I have time will I be able to help you.
– when “if” is omitted
• Had I known about it, I could have participated.
Parallel structures
• Use the same grammatical form for
structures connected by
coordinating conjunctions (and, but,
or, etc.).
– X I want to go to Italy and spending a
week in Rome.
– X They want to feel cool and happily.
Test yourself 1
1. The children in the park are eating
some delicious ice cream cones.
Because they want to get cool.
2. They eating very slowly.
3. The children who were eating the
ice cream they were with my uncle.
4. Usually in the summer is very hot in
the city.
Test yourself 2
1. She spends every week a lot of money.
2. He likes very much his sister’s friend.
3. She gave to her sister an expensive
present.
4. On a beach, nature gives you tranquility
and peace without noisy, pollution,
crowded, dirt, and humid.
5. The smell of frying hot dogs filling my
nostrils and making me hungry.
Editing Strategies
• Begin with the last sentence of your text
and work backward. This enables you to
isolate the sentence and look at it more
objectively.
• If using a word processor, you can further
isolate sentences by writing one sentence
per line. However, be sure to join them
together for your finished product.