Transcript A Journey into the English Sentence

A journey into the
English sentence
by Sarah Williams
“A subject thought: because he had a verb
With several objects, that he ruled a sentence.”
Stephen Spender; Subject, Object, Sentence
(c) 2010 The UWIC Academic Skills Team
START
Our destination
1. The main clause
2. Dependent clauses
3. Concord
4. Compound sentences
5. Now break the rules
Conclusion and resources
Our destination
This five-stage interactive lesson aims to give you
a full understanding of the structure of correct
sentences in standard, written British English.
We demonstrate how the various sentence
elements work, largely avoiding technical
explanation. The longer first section teaches you
the very basic definitions you do need.
The lesson is progressive, with each part
depending on the knowledge from the previous
part. We recommend strongly that you work
methodically from part to part, making a return
visit if necessary.
At the end, we hope you will feel you control the
language, rather than feeling the language is
always there to trap you.
Carry-on luggage
You need a pen and paper for some of the tasks.
Where we have had to use an incorrect example,
we show this with a * sign, the standard linguistic
notation for syntax which does not follow rules.
Most journeys are better undertaken with a
friend. If you can find someone else interested in
sentence construction, work through together so
you can discuss the various tasks.
The concluding resources section has a downloadable pdf version of the lesson slides, along
with recommendations for further self-study.
Timings are given on the separate sections.
There’s a lot to absorb here, so if you feel
overloaded, either take a break or return later.
First, what do you know already … ?
Spend two minutes jotting down what you think are the
characteristics of a complete, correct, English sentence.
Then hide your definition and proceed to the first section!
1: The main clause
All simple sentences, or main clauses of
compound sentences, must contain a
subject and a verb. Most main clauses
in sentences in formal written English
will also contain an object. You will
often see this pattern called SVO or
“Subject-Verb-Object”. This section
shows you how the SVO structure of
main clauses works.
Time needed for this section:
45 minutes to one hour.
Subject – Verb – Object 1
Here are two very short, perfectly correct sentences.
John skips.
John skips class.
On the next screen there’s a map showing the elements of both sentences.
Before you look at the map, which parts of each sentence do you think are the
subject, verb and object?
Subject – Verb – Object 2: a map
Subject
Verb
Object1
John
skips
class.
The operator of the
sentence.
What the subject
does.
What is acted upon by the
subject.
Together, subject, verb and object form the main clause of a simple sentence.
Some sentence types do not need objects. We discuss these on the next screen.
1
Some types of object are called ‘complement’ instead. These usually appear in sentences with the verb ‘to be’. For example, in “The
car was red”, red is a complement. We overlook this difference here as is not critical to understanding sentence structure. We refer to
both object and complement as ‘object’.
Subject – Verb – Object 3
A sentence with only a subject and a verb (SV) can be perfectly correct e.g.
“John skipped.” Here the verb is intransitive: this means the verb has no
object and just describes what the subject does. SV sentences are rare in
academic and formal writing.
Sentences with a subject, verb and object (SVO) are much more usual in
academic writing. Here the verb (“skips”) is transitive; it acts on, or
affects, an object (“class”).
Many English verbs can be both transitive and intransitive, often with an
amusing change of meaning: “John stripped.” (intransitive) or “John
stripped the wallpaper.” (transitive).
The main clause – rule 1
A complete sentence in standard written English must have a
main clause.
The main clause must include at least a subject and a verb
(SV). Usually it will contain a subject, verb and object (SVO).
Now we’ll look more closely at the SVO elements.
The main clause – the subject
Look at the seven sentences in the SVO table below. Can you
see what all the subjects have in common?
Subject
Verb
Object
The dog
stole
my homework.
He
My mother, my sister and I
Eating my homework
My carelessness
Miss Bark
A pack of dogs
ate
chased
made
was
punished
roamed
it.
him.
the dog sick.
my fault.
me.
the neighbourhood.
The main clause – rule 2
The subject of a main clause must include at least one noun or noun substitute.
Look at the table below for the different types.
Subject
Noun form
Explanation
The dog
concrete noun
A concrete noun is something you can see e.g. bridge, camel, desert.
An article – “the”, “a”, or “an” usually precedes a concrete noun.
He
pronoun
A pronoun substitutes for a noun already mentioned – here, “he” = the
dog. Pronouns in objects can change form e.g. “I gave the book to her.”
vs. “She gave it to me.”
My mother, my
sister and I
concrete nouns and a
pronoun in a list
Subjects can have more than one noun, or mix pronouns and nouns.
Eating my
homework
gerund or –’ing’ or
activity noun
Verbs in “-ing” forms can act as nouns e.g. “Running makes you fit.”
My carelessness
abstract noun
An abstract noun is an idea, or concept.
Miss Bark
proper noun
A proper noun is a named noun e.g. Mount Everest, Denmark, Nelson
Mandela, a Norwegian.
A pack of dogs
compound noun
Compound nouns, or noun phrases, comprising more than one word,
are often linked by “of” e.g. Houses of Parliament.
The main clause – rule 3
The main clause must include a verb. It doesn’t matter what tense or verb-type
is used, provided it makes sense with the rest of the sentence. Verbs are easily
identifiable as ‘action’ words, but tenses are often formed with other words
around them. Look at the table before for some examples of different tenses.
Example
Verb
Explanation
The dog stole my
homework.
stole
This is the one word verb (steal) in its past form.
Miss Bark will give
me a detention.
will give
Adding ‘will’ makes the future form of give.
I must buy new
school books.
must buy
A simple one word verb “buy” preceded by a modal verb “must”
indicates obligation.
I can’t get over my
terrible maths result.
can’t get over
“Get over” is a phrasal, or multi-word, verb. Here it has the
negative form of the modal verb “can” in front. This is very
colloquial English and should not be used in essays; however, it is
useful to be able to recognise verb structures in this form.
The main clause: practice 1.0
On each of the next five pairs of
slides, you will see a simple
sentence on the A slide.
Identify the subject, verb and
object and then flip to the B slide
to see if you were right.
The main clause: practice 1.1 A
Poor weather affected the success of the
2009 Summer Fayre.
The main clause: practice 1.1 B
Subject
Verb
Object
Poor weather affected the success of the 2009 Summer Fayre.
The main clause: practice 1.2 A
We engaged in a gruelling autumn tour of the UK.
The main clause: practice 1.2 B
Subject
Verb
Object
We
engaged
in a gruelling autumn tour of the UK.
The main clause: practice 1.4 A
The Higher Education Funding Council of Wales and the Welsh
Assembly control most higher education finance in Wales.
The main clause: practice 1.4 B
Subject
Verb
The Higher Education Funding Council control
of Wales and the Welsh Assembly
Object
most higher education
finance in Wales.
The main clause: practice 1.5 A
The university will be looking for students to fill
its new golf management course.
The main clause: practice 1.5 B
Subject
Verb
Object
The university
will be
looking for
students to fill its golf management
course.
The main clause: practice 2.0
On each of the next two pairs of slides, you will
again see a simple sentence on the A slide.
This time there is an element missing which
prevents the sentence being complete. Identify
the missing part, then flip to the troubleshooting B slide to see a solution and
explanation.
The main clause: practice 2.1 A
The exhausting day to day grind of running a
household, in addition to holding down a full time job.
The main clause: practice 2.1 B
Subject
Verb
The exhausting day to day grind of running a would defeat
household, in addition to holding down a full
time job
Object
most people.
Trouble-shooting
This sentence is only a subject: it lacks a verb and an object. When you have
a very long subject, including a sub-clause and several “-ing” words
(exhausting, running, holding etc.) which are not acting as verbs, it is easy to
confuse one of these words for the main verb. The question to ask is “What
happened in this sentence?”
The main clause: practice 2.3 A
Sailed into harbour as the tide went down.
The main clause: practice 2.2 B
Subject
Verb
Object
The ship
sailed
into harbour as the tide went down.
Trouble-shooting
This sentence is only a verb and an object. Again, the writer may have been
confused by the presence of the verb “went” in the “as” time phrase at the
end. The question to ask is “What sailed into harbour?”
While subjectless sentences are quite popular in contemporary literary
writing, they have no place in academic writing and should be avoided.
Summary of the main clause elements
Main noun types
 concrete
 abstract
 proper
 pronoun
 activity nouns (gerunds)
Verb types
 transitive
 intransitive
Subject
Object / Complement
Examples:
dog, biscuit, badminton
carelessness, hunger, motivation
Miss Bark, Harrogate, Denmark, Amanda
it, she, he, they
eating, running, singing, managing
Explanation:
Needs an object
Does not need an object
Must include a noun or pronoun
Part of sentence acted upon by the main verb
1: Book cover tease
You should now have no difficulty in
identifying the subject, verb and object
of the lurid book-title opposite!
The next section looks at the differences
between main and dependent clauses.
2: Dependent clauses
This section looks at writing more
elaborate sentences with dependent
clauses, as well as the main clause. You
will learn to tell the difference between
the two clause types, and to ensure your
sentence always has a main clause.
Time needed for this section:
about 25 minutes.
Identifying a dependent clause 1
So far you’ve looked at relatively simple sentences containing just a
main clause. The sentence below has three clauses, shown by the
colours. Which one do you think is the main clause, and why?
Turn to the next slide for an explanation.
As the young singer was successful in his first professional
performance, his manager booked a gruelling autumn tour of the
UK, promoting what they hoped would become the 2009
Christmas number one.
Identifying a dependent clause 1
Part
Clause type and why
As the young singer was
successful in his first
professional
performance,
Dependent clause1. Clauses giving conditions, or reasons, are
common at the beginnings of sentences, and frequently start
with the words “as”, “because”, “if” or “when”. If you want to
change this clause type to a main clause, you need only remove
the condition word e.g. “The young singer was successful in his
first performance” is a perfectly acceptable sentence on its own.
his manager booked a
gruelling autumn tour of
the UK,
Main clause. This is indicated by the presence of a subject “his
manager”, a main verb “booked” and object “a gruelling autumn
tour of the UK”.
promoting what they
hoped would become the
2009 Christmas number
one.
Dependent clause. To convert this to a main clause you would
need to add “They were promoting … “
1
You’ll also see these called subordinate clauses by quite a few books. We prefer dependent because it reminds you that this type of
clause cannot exist on its own.
Dependent clauses: practice 1.0
On each of the next four pairs of
slides, you will see a multi-clause
sentence on the A slide.
Identify just the main clause in each
sentence, and then flip to the B
slide to see if you were right. The B
slide sentence will have the main
clause highlighted in mauve.
Dependent clauses: practice 1.1A
Speaking as your manager, I am warning
you that a continuation of this behaviour
will not be tolerated.
Dependent clauses: practice 1.1B
Speaking as your manager, I am warning
you that a continuation of this behaviour
will not be tolerated.
Dependent clauses: practice 1.2A
When I was a child, I was incredibly shy.
Dependent clauses: practice 1.2B
When I was a child, I was incredibly shy.
Dependent clauses: practice 1.3A
When faced with a similar situation,
participants will now know they have
approximately 30 minutes to recover.
Dependent clauses: practice 1.3B
When faced with a similar situation,
participants will now know they have
approximately 30 minutes to recover.
Dependent clauses: practice 1.4A
Despite the hard work by the PTA
committee, and the continued efforts of the
fundraisers, bad weather affected the
success of the 2009 Summer Fayre.
Dependent clauses: practice 1.4B
Despite the hard work by the PTA
committee, and the continued efforts of the
fundraisers, bad weather affected the
success of the 2009 Summer Fayre.
Dependent clauses: practice 2.0
Open up the exercise1 in your preferred version below. You will see 12
sentences. Decide if they are complete sentences with a main clause,
or incomplete sentences. Try to correct the incomplete examples.
If you are working in a pair, try reading the sentences to each other
(part of the object of the exercise is to recognise aurally when
sentences are incomplete or complete).
Then check your answers using the button below.
Word version
1
PDF version
from Collinson, D, Kirkup, G, Kyd, R, and Slocombe, L (1992) Plain English Buckingham: OUP (pp-54-55).
ANSWERS
Trouble-shooting independent clauses
Dependent and main clauses can appear
in any position in a sentence. A sentence
is not necessarily complete because it is
long: it may just be a chain of dependent
clauses with no main clause.
Another sentence part often mistaken for
the main clauses is a time phrase,
especially when it contains a verb e.g.
“By the time I had gone to sleep” is a
dependent clause.
Mistaking a dependent clause for a main
clause often happens with ‘condition’ or
‘relative’ clauses starting with ‘”As”,
“When”, “Which”, or “If”. “-ing” nouns
such as ‘”speaking” can also be confused
with main clause verbs.
Careless writing from notes can lead to
missing main clauses. Bullet points and
lists are often composed of verbless
statements and key words. As you write
and edit, check every sentence has a
main clause including subject and verb,
and probably an object.
2: Book cover tease
You should now have no difficulty in
identifying the type of clause comprising
the book title opposite!
The next section looks at ‘concord’, or
how you make the subject and main verb
of your main clause agree. This is also
known as ‘subject-verb agreement’.
3: Concord
Concord means your subject and verb
must agree in number: single subjects
go with single verbs and plural subjects
with plural verbs.
The difficulty can lie in determining the
plurality of a subject, especially if it is a
long one.
Time needed for this section:
about 25 minutes.
Concord – examples
Look at the two sentences below. One is correct and one
is incorrect: can you say why?
The strength and ductility of a solid depends on how
easily cracks will occur.
The presence of such substances as carbon, silicon and
sulphur affects the behaviour of cast iron.
… if you are stuck, identify subjects, verbs and objects.
Concord – explanation
The first sentence is incorrect. It has
a double subject connected by “and”.
This makes the subject plural.
Therefore the main verb – depend –
must be plural too.
The second sentence is correct. The
main noun of the subject is
“presence”. This makes a singular
subject. Therefore the singular main
verb – affects – is fine.
The strength and ductility of a solid
depend on how easily cracks will
occur.
The presence of such substances as
carbon, silicon and sulphur affects
the behaviour of cast iron.
For a quick review of plural / singular verb differences, visit
verb forms.
Concord – more examples
Here are four more examples with their main verbs highlighted. This
time all the sentences are correct. Can you say why?
A special feature of the wine series is the individual ratings given for
quality, price and best recent vintages.
The government has decided it will impose higher pension
contributions on civil service workers.
Gavin or Charlotte causes trouble at the pub every week.
None of the rugby team plays golf in his spare time.
Go to the next screen to find out if you were right.
Concord – more explanation
A special feature of the wine series
is the individual ratings given for
quality, price and best recent
vintages.
The main noun of the subject, “feature”, is singular.
However, it is part of a noun phrase ending in a plural i.e.
“series”. It is very easy to forget that this is a singular
subject when a plural word is next to the verb.
The government has decided it will
Collective nouns such as “government”, “team”,
impose higher pension contributions “department” can be interpreted as both singular
on workers.
entities and as groups of individuals. Just be consistent
and make sure any subsequent pronouns are correct e.g.
has + it, have + they.
Gavin or Charlotte causes trouble at
the pub every week.
Placing “or” between two subjects makes them a single
choice of two. Therefore the verb reverts to its singular
form. You could also add “either” in front of this
sentence.
None of the rugby team plays golf in
his spare time.
None means literally “not one of”. Therefore it must be
treated as singular. Another example is: “Neither Gavin
nor Charlotte says they will get married. “
Concord: practice 1.0
Open the worksheet below in your preferred format. Read the nine sentences. Put a  next to
the sentence if its subject and verb agree properly. Put an  if they don’t, and also provide a
correction. You can access the key from the answers button.
As before, if you are working in a pair, take it in turns to reading the sentences to each other to
see if you can recognise subject-verb agreement aurally.
Word version
1
PDF version
Nos 1-5 and 7-9 from Collinson, D, Kirkup, G, Kyd, R, and Slocombe, L (1992) Plain English Buckingham: OUP (pp-59)
ANSWERS
Concord: the only rule!
Subjects must agree in number with main verbs
Singular subject = singular verb
Plural subject = plural verb
The only verbs affected are those in present
tenses, and past tenses involving was and were.
Where concord can tie itself in knots: 1
Plurality of a subject can be difficult to establish, especially if there is a
complex, long subject including singular and plural nouns e.g.
The limitation of exhaust emissions and atmospheric pollution
generally by the application of smoke control regulations is a further
step in the improvement of the road-user’s environment.
Establish clearly the controlling noun of a subject: in the example
above it is “limitation”, a singular noun. The main verb “is” occurs 15
words away from its controlling noun!
Where concord can tie itself in knots: 2
Plurality can genuinely be ambiguous where singular nouns
represent groups e.g.
The government has decided it will raise taxes.
The government have decided they will raise taxes.
Both versions are acceptable; however, problems can arise
with maintaining the appropriate pronoun reference. Stick to
one version or the other during a piece of writing.
Where concord can tie itself in knots: 3
“Neither/nor”, “either/or”, “no-one”, “nobody”, “none” (meaning “not
one”) “each” and “every” are singular:
Neither Dafydd nor Daniel was in the office.
Every book is security-tagged.
But none in the meaning of “nothing left” or “no-one left” can be
singular or plural:
There are none [=students] in the room.
There is none [=beer] in the fridge.
There are none [=beer bottles] in the fridge.
Where concord can tie itself in knots: 4
Some regional dialect forms or ‘street English’ e.g. “*We was”, “*You was”,
“*I were” ignore plural and singular verb differences, especially with “to be”.
Some dialects also use plural pronouns in a singular meaning e.g. in
Cumbrian, “We” and “us” are freely used to mean “I” and “me”. Certain
plurals such as “pounds” are often reduced in dialects e.g. “*Twenty pound
was paid.”
Electronic grammar checkers are frequently unreliable and/or wrong: they
have a poor ability to recognise more than the most basic sentence
subjects. Train yourself to identify the main verb and controlling noun of
the subject and you will become a far superior grammar checker!.
3: Book cover tease
Fill in the gap in this sentence:
“The flight of the conchords _____
cancelled.”
4: Compound sentences
This section examines how to deal with
compound sentences containing more than
one SVO clause. You are shown how
correctly to link compound sentences,
avoiding common pitfalls such as comma
splices.
Time needed for this section:
about 20 minutes.
Understanding compound sentences
Here are two sentences. See if you can identify the main clause in each
of these sentences.
Drivers should not panic or leave their vehicles, they should remain
calm until help arrives.
She wishes her son had not become involved with the group so early in
his career, their negative influence undoubtedly led to his current
incarceration.
Now turn to the next screen for explanation.
Explaining compound sentences
Both sentences have two independent main
clauses, each of which can stand alone as a
sentence.
Drivers should not panic or leave their vehicles.
They should remain calm until help arrives.
She wishes her son had not become involved
with the group so early in his career.
Their negative influence undoubtedly led to his
current incarceration.
Compound sentences are fine (and to be
encouraged in formal writing) but they must be
connected properly.
Here are the sentences, now connected properly.
Drivers should not panic or leave their vehicles;
instead they should remain calm until help
arrives.
She wishes her son had not become involved
with the group so early in his career because
their negative influence undoubtedly led to his
current incarceration.
The next screen gives you the rules about
compound sentences.
Rules about compound sentences
1.
A compound sentence has more than
one independent clause obeying the
subject-verb-object format.
2.
The clauses are connected either with a
co-ordinating conjunction, or
punctuation with the function of a coordinating conjunction.
3.
Commas cannot be used on their own to
connect compound sentences: this
creates “comma splices” or “run-on”
sentences. If you were told at school
that “commas divide sentences”, forget
this ‘rule’ now because it is wrong!
The next two screens will look at how coordinating conjunctions and punctuation
work. As we are now going to get a little bit
more technical, you are permitted a brief
scream before continuing.
Meet the FANBOYS
1.
The little words on the right, known as coordinating conjunctions, are the most common
way to link compound sentences. They often do
not require additional punctuation. There are
other conjunctions, but these are the most usual.
2.
You’ve already met correlative conjunctions e.g.
“either ... or “ and “neither ... Nor”. They behave
like FANBOYS but act in pairs.
3.
Do not use more than one co-ordinating
conjunction per sentence! With rare exceptions,
repeated conjunctions lead to sloppy writing.
4.
Let’s see some FANBOYS in action on the waves of
compound sentences on the next two screens ...
for
and
nor
but
or
yet
so
Co-ordinating conjunctions in action
Clarke was surfing off
the Cardiff barrage
and
but
yet
so
when
a shark ate him.
Co-ordinating conjunctions in action
The shark was pleased
with its lunch
for
as
because
it hadn’t eaten since
the previous weekend.
Co-ordinating punctuation
Now you’ve seen how to connect a
compound sentence with conjunction
words, let’s look at the two
punctuation signs which do the same
job; the colon and the semi-colon.
Myths surround the use of colons and
semi-colons. Before going on, reflect
on what purposes they have, and what
the differences are. Write a couple of
examples for yourself including colons
and semi-colons (there’s a big clue in
the first paragraph above).
Trouble-shooting fear and loathing of the ;
A semi-colon connects two
independent clauses where the second
clause explains, or elaborates on, the
first e.g. the example on the left in the
cartoon. Semi-colons are often paired
with qualifying adverbs such as
“however” and “besides” if they are
used in compound sentences e.g.
Grade inflation is a growing problem
in contemporary universities;
however, upper second degrees
remain a popular benchmark for
employers.
Trouble-shooting fear and loathing of the colon
Colons act very similarly to semicolons. Use a colon where the second
half of your compound sentence
extends rather than explains the first
half. Normally you do not need a
qualifying adverb after a colon e.g.
Grade inflation is a growing problem
in contemporary universities: both
employers and students are
beginning to question the viability of
more and more graduates with firsts
and upper seconds.
Compound sentences: practice 1.0
On each of the next five pairs of
slides, you will see a sentence on
the A slide.
Decide if it is a compound
sentence or not, then flip to the B
slide to see if you were right.
Compound sentences: practice 1.1 A
If they had taken time to review the risk
assessment before the trial started, the
accident might have been avoided.
Compound sentences: practice 1.1 B
If they had taken time to review the risk assessment
before the trial started, the accident might have
been avoided.
 The first clause is a dependent clause
starting with “If” (a condition) and the
second clause is an independent clause.
Compound sentences: practice 1.2 A
While it was initially panned by the critics, The
Shawshank Redemption has risen to the top of
many people’s favourite films list: the stand-out
performances of Freeman and Robbins, together
with King’s powerful and compelling narrative,
are doubtless the persuading factors.
Compound sentences: practice 1.2 B
While it was initially panned by the critics, The Shawshank Redemption
has risen to the top of many people’s favourite films list: the stand-out
performances of Freeman and Robbins, together with King’s powerful
and compelling narrative, are doubtless the persuading factors.
 There are two independent clauses
here. Note that the first clause is
preceded by a dependent clause, and
second clause is split by a sub-clause.
Compound sentences: practice 1.3 A
49 athletes finished the marathon in three hours
and a further 23 finished in four hours.
Compound sentences: practice 1.4 B
49 athletes finished the marathon in three hours and a further
23 finished in four hours.
 There are two independent clauses connected
by the conjunction ‘and’. This sentence is a good
example of parallelism (repeated subject and
main verb) and could be much more neatly
written thus:
49 athletes finished the marathon in three hours and a further
23 in four.
Compound sentences: practice 1.4 A
The three top reasons most commonly given by
employers for turning down graduates after
interviews are: poor attention to personal hygiene,
lack of interview preparation and written mistakes
in applications.
Compound sentences: practice 1.4 B
The three top reasons most commonly given by employers
for turning down graduates after interviews are: poor
attention to personal hygiene, lack of interview
preparation and written mistakes in applications.
 There is one main clause which does not
end at the colon. What follows the colon is a
list forming the object (or complement) of
the sentence, not a second independent
clause.
Compound sentences: practice 1.5 A
Three years after starting their gruelling six year
course, medical students of all varieties normally
exchange their formal university environment for
clinical practice in the form of an internship at a
large city teaching hospital.
Compound sentences: practice 1.5 B
Three years after starting their gruelling six year course,
medical students of all varieties normally exchange their
formal university environment for clinical practice in the
form of an internship at a large city teaching hospital.
 There is only one independent main clause
with the verb “exchange”. The opening
clause is a time clause and is dependent on
the main clause.
Trouble-shooting compound sentences
Mistakes in compound sentences can be avoided by:
• Not relying on electronic grammar checkers.
• Deciding clearly whether the sentence is compound or not at the outset (a
lot of errors occur during hasty editing when sentences are not checked).
• Being clear about the function of the interior punctuation in the sentence.
• Understanding the role of ; and : signs.
• Challenging the authority of poor advice from primary and secondary
school e.g. “when in doubt, put in a comma”; “use commas to separate
sentences”; “put some commas in to give it some air”; and “write as you
speak” are all fail-safe recipes for run-on or ‘comma splice’ sentences.
4: Book cover tease
Do you fancy editing this famous title in
the light of what you now know about
compound sentences?
5: Now break the rules …
This section examines briefly the two
main sentence types which do not
conform to the standard subject-verbobject format in the main clause:
passive and imperative constructions.
Time needed for this section:
20 minutes.
... now break the rules
Formal written English contains two sentence types
which appear to omit subjects and do not follow the
rules you have looked at so far. These are passive and
imperative structures.
Look at the two pairs of sentences on the next screen.
What are the differences between each sentence in the
pair? What are the subjects, verbs and objects?
... now break the rules
Universal local authority maintenance grants for students were
removed by the government nearly 20 years ago.
The government removed universal local authority maintenance
grants for students nearly 20 years ago.
Cambridge University was founded in 1209.
A renegade group of students from Oxford founded Cambridge
University in 1209.
Passive vs. active sentence forms
The first sentence in each pair is a passive
construction. The object comes first, followed
by the verb with was, were or another form
of to be in front of it. The subject may be
changed into an “agent” preceded by the
word by.
Cambridge University was founded by a group
of renegade students from Oxford in 1209.
Passives are often a better choice of sentence
when the subject is not known, or if it is
simply irrelevant, or if it is not a conscious
entity. Some examples are opposite.
131 books were stolen from the library
last year. (=we don’t know the identity of the
thieves)
Cambridge University was founded in
1209. (=we are interested in the date, not the
anonymous founding students)
Bubonic plague is caused by a bacterium
carried in the guts of infected fleas. The
fleas in turn are carried by rats. (=we are
interested in how bubonic plague is transmitted
rather than the rats and fleas themselves!)
... now break all the rules again
What do all the following sentences have in common?
Check all the pages before submitting the form.
Consider applying for an internship first.
Do not mix hot oil and water.
Neither panic nor leave your vehicle; instead,
remain calm until help arrives.
Write up to 150 words for each answer.
Imperative sentence forms
All the examples start with a positive or
negative verb in the present tense and
do not include a subject. These are
commands, or ‘imperative’ sentences.
They only appear in the present tense.
Imperatives are unusual in formal
writing but are vital for assembling lists
of instructions or rules. They are very
common in exam instructions and
assignment briefs.
Double imperatives can appear with
“either”/”or” (+) or “neither”/”nor” (-).
Increase the heat only when the crystals
have melted.
Leave the building by all available exits.
Either answer one question from each
part, or two questions each from parts A
and B.
Neither talk nor eat during the exam.
Do not attempt to use the lifts during a
fire alarm.
Practice with passive and imperative forms
Passive forms
Imagine a fascinating historical sport has
been discovered by archaeologists
excavating a site in central Cardiff. Write a
short news report on the facts of the find
and some of the suppositions being made
about the sport’s origins. Use passive
sentences where needed.
Give your imaginary sport a name and
publish your report on Facebook. Who
knows, you might get people writing in
thinking your sport is for real.
Imperatives
Write a ten-point funny ‘good behaviour’
charter for learners in your course. Use
imperative forms and try to bring in some
negative and double imperatives too.
Pin your charter to a UWIC noticeboard
and see what happens to it.
Trouble-shooting passives and imperatives
Like compound sentences, passive and imperative structures are frequently the
victims of misunderstanding and ignorance.
“Passives are bad academic writing”. No they are not: it depends how they are
used. If passive structures are used to avoid locating and checking facts and
sources, then they are poor writing. If the source or fact is simply unknown or
could be misleading (or of minimal interest) then passive forms are vital e.g.
“The Earth was formed six billion years ago” (passive) is very different in
meaning from “God formed the earth six billion years ago” (active).
“Passives make writing boring”. Partly true. Strong verbs and lively, varied
sentences bring all writing to life. Reporting on a process, such as a detailed
scientific experiment, will require passives just to avoid repetition of the subject
e.g. “The researchers did step 1 … the researchers did step 2.”
Full circle: what do you know now?
Get out the definition of sentence structure you wrote at
the beginning.
How would you add to or change that definition?
Conclusion: baggage claim
This section briefly describes
resources for further practice on
sentence construction, all available in
UWIC libraries. There’s also a PDF
version of the lesson you can
download.
Woods, G (2006) English Grammar for Dummies and English Grammar
Workbook for Dummies Hoboken: Wiley Publishing
Together, these are the best possible ‘training
course’ for those wanting to learn to write
perfect English without the burden of learning
technical grammar.
The workbook is packed with entertaining
exercises with a full key and feedback.
Chapters 1-6 of the main book and 1-4 of the
workbook provide a comprehensive overhaul
of sentence structure, including everything
covered in this lesson.
There are UK and US versions but do not worry
about the differences: unlike UK/US spelling,
grammar differences are minimal. UWIC
libraries own the workbook as an e-book.
Collinson, D, Kirkup, G, Kyd, R and Slocombe L
(1995) Plain English Buckingham: OUP
Evans, H (1972, 2000) Essential English for
Journalists, Editors and Writers London: Pimlico
This is a cheerful little book packed with
practical exercises. There is a very good
self-assessment quiz at the beginning.
Buy your own copy and write in it!
Follow the advice here and you will never
make a mistake of grammar or style
again. This is a reference rather than a
practice book.
Palmer, R (2002) Write in Style London:
Routledge (e-book in UWIC libraries)
Quirk, R and Greenbaum S (1997) A University
Grammar of English Harlow: Longman
Again, packed with practical (often funny) exercises,
Palmer’s book is a comprehensive guide to editing
perfect English copy. Excellent advice is also given on
style issues such as concision.
This book is not for the faint-hearted: if you have
grasped the basic grammar terms, you can look up
almost anything here to do with English syntax.
We have some shelf copies in UWIC libraries and
copies turn up occasionally second hand.
This is a summary version of Quirk and Greenbaum’s
longer work A Comprehensive Grammar of the
English Language.
Download a PDF version of A journey into the
English sentence.
Thankyous
Amanda Bennett, Andrew Morgans, Charlotte
Arundel, Rachel Wilson and Stuart Abbott
cheerfully allowed themselves to be trapped into
writing many of the example sentences.
Then they agreed to be white mice for testing the
material.
What great colleagues you are!
I hope your sentences are forever purrfect ...
... Sarah Williams