Sentences What are they?

A sentence is made up of words that [when put together] do a particular job. So let’s look at what those jobs are and how they work together to make a sentence.

Words First let’s look more closely at words. barked dog big Each of these words does a different job.

dog big barked When put together words form phrases. dog is a noun; a noun names things in the sentence. big is an adjective; it gives more information about the noun barked is a verb; it tells us what happened in the sentence. When put together words form phrases.

We put phrases together to make a clause. A phrase is a short, single piece of information. For example: the big dog the big dog is a noun-phrase or subject. It tells us who or what the sentence is about. barked This is another piece of single information; it’s a verb, it will tell us what the subject is doing. We put phrases together to make a clause.

Clauses A clause is a larger word-group that includes a little more information. It consists of at least two phrases. a noun-phrase or subject and a verb. the big dog barked In this clause, the subject or noun-phrase is the big dog and the verb is barked. We now have nearly everything we need to make a sentence.

Sentences If we put a capital letter at the beginning of the clause we have used, and a full-stop at the end … The big dog barked. TA DA!!!! We have a sentence. This is a simple sentence: It has one clause which contains a subject (or noun- phrase) and a verb. and puts across one simple idea.

Now it’s your turn! In your English books write the following clause the young boy fell How many phrases are in this clause? Separate the phrases with a line ( / ) the young boy / fell Underline the subject or noun phrase and circle the verb. the young boy / fell What changes will you need to make to turn the clause into a simple sentence? Re-write the clause as a simple sentence. The young boy fell.

Where to next? Today we have looked at phrases, clauses and simple sentences. Next time we will look at two other sorts of sentences: Complex and Compound sentences.