1. Sentences

2. All sentences need… A ‘subject’. This is the ‘who’ or the ‘what’ in the sentence. The subject is the person/thing which the action revolves around. E.g: David kicks the ball. A ‘verb’. A verb is the ‘doing’ word in the sentence and is either an action (something the subject does) or a state (something the subject is). E.g: David kicks the ball. Incidentally, the ‘ball’ is the object in this sentence as it RECEIVES the action from the subject.

3. Simple Sentences A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb: E.g: Lucy reads. Even adding an adjective or a connecting word does not mean it changes from being a simple sentence. E.g: Little Lucy reads and loves books. In the sentence above, ‘loves books’ could not stand alone so it is NOT a compound sentence

4. Compound Sentences Compound sentences are when two independent sentences are joined together with a conjunction such as: and, or, but E.g: It was a dark night and the moon glowed eerily In the example above, ‘It was a dark night’ and ‘the moon glowed eerily’ both contain a subject and a verb and are therefore independent.

5. Complex Sentences Complex sentences describe more than one thing or idea and have more than one verb in them. They are made up of more than one clause, an independent clause (that can stand by itself) and a dependent (subordinate) clause (which cannot stand by itself). E.g: My sister likes cats that don’t scratch In the above sentence, ‘that don’t scratch’ depends on ‘my sister likes cats’ to make sense. It is a ‘dependent’ clause and couldn’t exist by itself

6. Auxiliary Verbs Sometimes a sentence will need an auxiliary (helping verb) as well as the main verb. They are: 1. Do/does/did 2. Be/am/are/is 3. Have/has/had E.g: Sitting on my deckchair, I am utterly relaxed. Main verb Auxiliary Verb

7. Got it? What type of sentences are these? 1. The cat sat on the mat 2. I saw an elephant and I also saw a lion 3. The delectable, exquisite chocolate lured me to it. 4. I like a dog that doesn’t bark 5. I went to school and I made loads of new friends 6. I was laid in the park, feeling great, when a large slug ruined my new jacket by crawling on it