A Sentence: Definition Examples, etc Structural Parts of a Sentence A sentence • is a group of words which consists of subject and predicate and • expresses a complete thought. Subject – names who/what is being talked about Predicate – tells us some thing about the subject (action/state of being) Subject can be Predicate can be Noun Pronoun or Noun Phrase Verb Verb + adverb Verb + object (Direct and/or Indirect) Verb + complement Subject – names who/what is being talked about Predicate – tells us sth about the subject (action/state of being) Examples: Subject + Predicate (verb) • The baby cried. • The old man died. • She has gone. • The game ended. • Everyone laughed. • The beautiful girl giggled. Examples: Subject + predicate (verb + adverb) • The baby cried bitterly. • The old man died yesterday. • We worked hard. • They played well. Examples: Subject + Predicate (trans verb + object) • The boy kicked the ball. • The dog bit the girl. • The satellite rotates the earth. • Edison invented the electric bulb. • The chairman made a livelily speech. Examples: Subject + trans verb + Indirect Object + Direct object • The President awarded him a gold medal. • I bade my friends a sad farewell. • He gave her some flowers. • She told me an interesting story. Subject + Predicate (link verb + Sub Complement) • The room smells bad. verb to be • She felt sick. sound • Samuel is an engineer. smell • The boy is clever. taste • We are soldiers. feel • This is a disastrous action. etc. • She was a beloved girl. • They were very friendly. A sentence • must have subject and predicate (verb); • must express a complete thought; • needs to make sense; • must have a logical word order; • has to begin with a capital letter and end with appropriate terminal/end punctuation mark (./?/!) • can be short or long • should be acceptable to native speakers of the language Look at the following group of words. Can they qualify a sentence? • The clever student in our class. • If you go home earlier. • Samuel killed a big stone. • The party ruled South Africa for the past 40 years. • are Ethiopians we all • The beautiful girl walking down stairs. • The rain was envious. • She sang a beautiful song.