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The Simple Sentence. A quick lesson. All sentences must have three things:. A subject A verb A complete idea The subject carries out the action or state of the verb . Margie likes ice cream. Without a complete idea, you leave someone… hanging.
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The Simple Sentence A quick lesson.
All sentences must have three things: • A subject • A verb • A complete idea • The subject carries out the action or state of the verb.Margielikes ice cream. • Without a complete idea, you leave someone… • hanging. • Because we never saw that movie. (??) • A simple sentence has one independent clause.
Sentence Word Order • Standard sentence order goes like this: • Subject + verb + additional information. • Isaw … • Additional information can tell who (my sister) when (last night) where (at the movies) what (with a man who isn’t her husband) why (because her divorce was just finalized) and more.
Reordering • Some additional information can be placed in front of the subject, and when it is, it’s usually offset by a comma: • Last night, Isaw my sister at the movies… • Because her divorce is finalized, my sisterwas at the movies last night with a man who isn’t her husband. • Unfortunately, she had a bad time.
Practice: Identify the subject and verb. Also, identify what type of additional information is included. • In order to get ready quickly in the morning, I wash my hair at night. • My parents went to Paris and saw the Mona Lisa last summer. • Deep in the pocket of the couch, my cat digs for her favorite toy. • Before going to the dentist, the patient has taken some anti-anxiety medication.
Prepositional Phrases • Prepositions are generally small words like in, on, at, with, for, of, off that appear at the beginning of noun phrases (the dog, an umbrella, the desks). • They cannot include the subject of the sentence (but they can stand in between the subject and the verb) • They give additional information. • The girlson that basketball teamare scrappy! • Oneof my neighborscalls me every day. • The lady with the three small dogs works with my mom.
Another PracticeIdentify the subject and the verb. Also identify prepositional phrases. • The house in the canyon between those two mountains never gets any sun. • The girls from New York at the club last night refused to dance with anyone! • The plants around my house cause serious allergy problems for me in the spring. • Did you see the mailman on that motorcycle?