A sentence expresses a complete thought through at least one independent clause. There are different sentence types such as declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences. Every sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with appropriate punctuation. Each sentence must have a subject and predicate, where the predicate includes a verb expressing an action or state of being agreed upon by the subject. Fragments and run-on sentences should be avoided for clarity.

1. SENTENCES

2. • A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought.
• Every sentence contains at least one independent (or main) clause.
• Different types of sentences have different purposes. A sentence can
make a statement, ask a question, give a command, or express
strong feeling.

3. 1. Edgar Allan Poe wrote suspenseful short stories. (declarative)
2. Did Poe also write poetry? (interrogative)
3. Read “Annabel Lee”. (imperative)
4. What a great writer he was! (exclamatory)
• ALL sentences begin with a CAPITAL LETTER and end with a PUNCTUATION
MARK.
• The punctuation market the end of the sentence is determined by the purpose
of that sentence.

6. • Every sentence must have a subject and a predicate.
• The predicate part of a sentence includes a verb that expresses action or state
of being
Emily Dickinson wrote many poems about nature.
• The subject is a noun or pronoun that names someone or something to do
the action or to have that state of being.
Emily Dickinson wrote many poems about nature.

7. Remember the being verbs?
Here they are:
am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been

8. • Subjects and verbs must AGREE with one another in number (singular
or plural).
• If a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is
plural, its verb must also be plural.

9. • In the present tense, nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite
ways: nouns ADD an s to the singular form; verbs REMOVE
the s from the singular form.

10. • A group of words that does not express a complete thought is a sentence
fragment.
• We often speak in fragments; however, in formal writing it is incorrect to use
fragments.

11. • A run-on sentence contains too many clauses, and lacks correct punctuation.
• Run-on sentences make it difficult for a reader to understand a writer’s intent.
• For CLARITY in your writing, AVOID FRAGMENTS AND RUN-ONS.