This document defines and provides examples of key grammatical concepts in sentences: - A simple sentence contains one independent clause. An independent clause has a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought on its own. - The subject is the person or thing performing the action. Examples of subjects are provided. - The verb shows the action or state of being. There are action, helping, and complete verbs formed by a helping verb plus an action verb. Examples of each type of verb are given.

1. SIMPLE SENTENCE - A sentence that has one INDEPENDENT CLAUSE
INDEPENDENT CLAUSE – A group of words that contains a SUBJECT and a VERB
that expresses a complete thought on its own; therefore, it is INDEPENDENT.
SUBJECT – The person or thing performing the action in a sentence
*see example subjects in BOLD below…
The Lions won the game.
LHS students play hard.
Patience is a virtue.
Chesty has represented LHS since 1946.
Teachers and students work hard at LHS. (Compound subject)
VERB – A word that shows the action or state of being in a sentence
*ACTION VERBS - run, jump, stand, swim, think, read, try, etc.
*HELPING (or state of being) VERBS – is, am, are, can, could, may, might,
must, do, does, did, should, has, have, had, was, were, will, would, be, been, etc.
*see example verbs in BOLD below…
action verb examples:
A major league baseball lasts seven pitches on average.
The TV show Leave It to Beaver showed a toilet on TV for the first time.
Only 22% of the earth’s original forests remain today.
state of being verb examples:
The book Green Eggs and Ham has only fifty different words.
There are over 200 corpses of deceased climbers on Mount Everest.
When full, Nebraska University’s stadium is the state’s 3rd largest “city”.
helping verb + action verb (“complete verb”) examples:
An estimated 16,000 people worldwide are infected with HIV daily.
Strong negative emotions can damage the immune system.
The sound effects in the film Psycho were created by stabbing a melon.
Bill has lived and worked in Lawrence for 11 years. (Compound verb)