How to Make Sentences

All sentences start with a capital letter.

According to Dictionary.com, a sentence is an idea, statement, question, request or command written with one or more words. When a sentence has more than one word in it, it has a syntactic relation with the words before or after it. There are four types of sentences, according to Empire State College: declarative, interrogative, exclamatory and imperative. Declarative sentences are simple statements; interrogative sentences pose a question; exclamatory sentences express an emotion; and imperative sentences state commands. It may be harder for those learning English as a second or third language to form sentences because the sentence structure is often different than their native language.

Instructions

1. Begin the sentence with a capital (uppercase) letter.

2. Add a noun to the sentence. The noun is a person, place or thing and tells the reader who or what did an action. Example of nouns include "mom," "school," "dog," "child" and "computer."

3. Add a verb to the sentence. The verb tells the reader what action the noun is doing. Examples of action verbs include "mix," "run," "see" and "jump."

4. Add an object after the verb. According to Dictionary.com, an object is "a noun, noun phrase, or noun substitute representing by its syntactical position either the goal of the action of a verb or the goal of a preposition in a prepositional phrase."

5. Add prepositions, words that show the relation between one word and the object. Place prepositions before nouns. Examples of prepositions include "about," "in," "of," "near," "under" and "with."

6. Insert conjunctions, words that pair elements in a sentence together. Examples of conjunctions include "and," "because," "either" and "or."

7. Add articles, which are adjectives placed before a noun to identify a reference to a specific word. The Guide to Grammar and Writing states examples of articles include "the," "a" and "an."

8. Add infinitives to add clarity to a sentence. An infinitive is a type of verb that has the word "to" next to a main verb (for example, "to run" or "to make").

9. Add a punctuation mark to the end of the sentence. The punctuation mark is the last step of completing a sentence after adding prepositions, conjunctions and other parts of speech and indicates the idea is complete. Punctuation marks include periods (.), exclamation points to express excitement (!) and question marks (?).

10. Combine the steps together to form a sentence. This is a sentence that includes all the components described: I flew to Paris to eat a hot baguette and momentarily stand under the Eiffel Tower.

    Here is the same sentence broken down:I (capital letter, noun) flew (verb) to (preposition) Paris (noun) to eat (infinitive) a (article) hot (adjective) baguette (noun) and (conjunction) momentarily (adverb) stand (verb) under (preposition) the (article) Eiffel Tower (noun). (punctuation mark)

Tips & Warnings

• Grammar Plus states sentences must always contain subjects (nouns) and predicates (verb phrases) that must agree.

• Some nouns can also be verbs, like the word "fire."

• Verb tenses in a sentence must match. Verb tenses include past, present and future.

• Use the word "that" only to prevent reader confusion.

• Linking verbs connect a noun with a subject complement to describe or modify the noun. For example, the word "is" is the linking verb in the following sentence: Ice is cold.

• Leaving out prepositions, conjunctions, infinitives and articles may make it hard for the reader to understand what you are trying to communicate in your writing.

References

• The Guide to Grammar and Writing: Definitions of Basic Sentence Parts
• Empire State College: How Does a Sentence Make Sense?
• English Plus: Sentence Definition
• Dictionary: Sentence Definition
• Scientific Psychic: Basic English Sentence Structures

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Scientific Psychic: Basic English Sentence Structures: Parts of Speech