Basic Sentence Structure This lesson comes from Grammar Troublespots by Ann Raimes. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.

Is it standard English? 1.the sun is shining. 2.They walk slowly and quietly 3.Watching themselves make steps on the white sand. 4.You can hardly see any sand. 5.Because there are so many people and so many umbrellas. 6.You can imagine walking on the white glittering sand. 7.The feeling of cool sand running through your toes.

Is it standard English? 8.There is a big coconut tree. 9.Some leaves on the sand. 10.Is a St. Croix beach in the Virgin Islands. 11.The tree on the beach it is very big. 12.Shade from the sun some umbrellas provide. 13.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.