Sentence Structure

The sentence is a grammatical unit that is syntactically independent i.e. the sentence has to fulfill the following requirements.

  1. It needs a subject (noun or pronoun). This is usually the person, thing or concept that does the action in the sentence and is called the actor. It tells who or what the sentence is about: e.g. Jack ran Jill ran Jak and Jill ran

  2. It needs a predicate (verb or verb phrase). This is usually the action that the actor does e.g. Jack ran Jill is taller than Jack

  3. It has to express a complete thought i.e. the sentence should supply enough information so that you are satisfied. If the sentence reads like the following examples, you should know that something is missing:

  • - Because Jack and Jill were running up the hill

  • - Jack and Jill are

  • - Running up the hill in order to go to university