What is a sentence? A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought; it is an independent clause that contains a subject and a verb.

A Sentence… A sentence must express a complete thought. Think about that for a moment. In order to be a correct sentence, it must express a complete thought. What do we mean by complete? To be a complete thought, a sentence needs a subject, and a verb. Subject: who or what the sentence is about. Verb: describes the subject; actions, states of being, or events. The verb (and all the other words that come after the subject) is called the predicate.

Subject To identify the subject of a sentence, ask yourself "who or what is doing the action?" Verb To identify the verb in a sentence, ask yourself "what is the action?" or "what is being done here?" In some sentences, though, the verb is a "state of being." The verb "to be" in all its forms is an example of this.

Declarative: makes a statement, and ends with a period Declarative: makes a statement, and ends with a period. I sing a lovely song. Interrogative: asks a question, and ends with a question mark. Did I sing a lovely song? Imperative: gives a command or makes a request, and ends with a period or an exclamation point. (an, etc.) Sing a song for us now. 4. Exclamatory: shows a strong emotion of some kind, i.e., pleasure, anger, fears strong feeling or emotion. He sang a lovely song ! (he = the subject; sang = past tense of the verb "sing"; sang a lovely song = the predicate) Remember: a complete sentence must have a subject and a verb:

Type…Declarative

Type…Imperative

Type…Interrogative

Type…Exclamatory

The Eight Parts of Speech The eight parts of speech are the pieces of language that make up correct sentence structure. They are noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

Eight Parts of Speech Definitions 1. Nouns A noun is a naming word. A noun may name a person, place, thing or idea. 2. Verbs A verb is either an action word or a state-of-being-word. 3. Adjectives An adjective describes or modifies a noun. 4. Pronouns Pronouns take the place of nouns. 5. Adverbs Adverbs tell about verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Adverbs add meaning or intensity to verbs. Adverbs tell how, when or where about a verb. 6. Prepositions Propositions show position or how things go together. 7. Conjunctions Conjunctions are joining words. 8. Interjections Interjections express strong or sudden feeling. They are not needed to complete a sentence.

When students write sentences, there are many parts the standards state must be present: Upper case letter at the beginning Spaces between words Left-to-right progression of writing Punctuation at the end of each sentence Sounding out words Neatness Does the sentence make sense?