Mention needs to be made about other types of words that
Basic English Grammar
Rules
Some of the most basic and important English grammar
rules relate directly to sentence structure. These rules
specify that:
 A singular subject needs a singular predicate.
 A sentence needs to express a complete thought.
Another term for a sentence is an independent clause:
 Clauses, like any sentence, have a subject and
predicate too. If a group of words does not have a
subject and predicate, it is a phrase.
 If a clause can stand alone and make a complete
thought, then it is independent and can be called a
sentence.
 If clauses do not express a complete thought, they are
called dependent clauses. An example of a dependent
clause, which is not a sentence, is "when I finish my
work." A dependent clause needs an independent
clause to make it whole.
So, what are the other basic rules for sentence structure?
Subjects and Predicates
Basic to any language is the sentence, which expresses a
complete thought and consists of a subject and a predicate.
 The subject is the star of the sentence; the person,
animal, or thing that is the focus of it.
 The predicate will tell the action that the subject is
taking or tell something about the subject.
Basic Parts of Speech
Once you have a general idea of the basic grammar rules
for sentence structure, it is also helpful to learn about
the parts of speech:
 A noun names a person, animal, place, thing, quality,
idea, activity, or feeling. A noun can be singular,
plural, or possessive.
 A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun,
like "I", "you", or "they."
 A verb shows action and can be a main verb or a
helping verb, like "were" or "has." Verbs also indicate
tense and sometimes change their form to show past,
present, or future tense. Linking verbs link the subject
to the rest of the sentence and examples are: "appear"
and "seem."
 An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun. It adds
meaning by telling which one, what kind, or
describing it in other ways.
 An adverb will modify a verb and tell more about it,
like how much, when, where, why, or how.
 A preposition shows a relationship between nouns or
pronouns. It is often used with a noun to show
location, like "beside," "in," or "on". It can also show
time, direction, motion, manner, reason, or
possession.
 Conjunctions connect two words, phrases, or clauses.
Common conjunctions are "and", "but", and "or."
are considered by some to be parts of speech.
 One of them is the interjection. It shows emotion and
examples are "hurray", "uh-oh", and "alas."
 Articles are very useful little words. Indefinite
articles are "a" and "an" and "the" is a definite article.
Punctuation
To fully understand basic grammar rules, you also need to
look at punctuationrules.
 Capitalization is important. All sentences must start
with a capital, or upper-case, letter. Titles of people,
books, magazines, movies, specific places, etc. are
capitalized. Organizations and compass points are
capitalized.
 Every sentence needs a punctuation mark at the end
of it. These include a period, exclamation mark, or
question mark.
 Colons are used to separate a sentence from a list of
items, to introduce a long, direct quote, or between
two sentences (or clauses) when the second one
explains the first.
 Semicolons can take the place of a conjunction and
are placed before introductory words like "therefore"
or "however." They are also used to separate a list of
things if there are commas within each unit.
 There are a lot of rules for commas. The basic ones
are that commas separate things in a series and go
wherever there is a pause in the sentence. They
surround the name of a person being addressed,
separate the day of the month from the year in a date,
and separate a town from the state.
 Parentheses enclose things that clarify or numbers
and letters that are part of a list.
 Apostrophes are used in contractions to take the
place of one or more letters and also to show
possession. An apostrophe and "s" is added if the
noun is singular and an apostrophe alone is added if
the noun is plural.
Four Functional Types of
Sentences
There are four main types of sentences that can
be distinguished by their function and
purpose:
 A declarative sentence makes a
statement: Babies cry.
 An interrogative sentence poses a
question: Why do babies cry?
 An imperative sentence gives
instructions or expresses a request or
demand: Please be quiet.
 An exclamatory sentence expresses
strong feelings by making an
exclamation: Shut up!
 BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Parts of Sentences: Subject, Predicate,
Object, Indirect Object, Complement
 Every word in a sentence serves a specific
purpose within the structure of that particular
sentence. According to rules of grammar,
sentence structure can sometimes be quite
complicated. For the sake of simplicity,
however, the basic parts of a sentence are
discussed here.
 The two most basic parts of a sentence are
the subject and predicate.
 SUBJECT
 The subject of a sentence is the person,
place, or thing that is performing the
action of the sentence. The subject
represents what or whom the sentence is
about. The simple subject usually contains
a noun or pronoun and can include
modifying words, phrases, or clauses.
 The man . . .
 PREDICATE
 The predicate expresses action or being
within the sentence. The simple predicate
contains the verb and can also contain
modifying words, phrases, or clauses.
 The man / builds a house.
 The subject and predicate make up the two
basic structural parts of any complete sentence.
In addition, there are other elements, contained
within the subject or predicate, that add
meaning or detail. These elements include the
direct object, indirect object, and subject
complement. All of these elements can be
expanded and further combined into simple,
compound, complex, or compound/complex
sentences. (See TIP Sheet on "Sentence Type
and Purpose.")
 DIRECT OBJECT
 The direct object receives the action of
the sentence. The direct object is usually
a noun or pronoun.
 The man builds a house.
 The man builds it.
 INDIRECT OBJECT
 The indirect object indicates to whom or
for whom the action of the sentence is
being done. The indirect object is usually
a noun or pronoun.
 The man builds his family a house.
 The man builds them a house.
 SUBJECT COMPLEMENT
 A subject complement either renames or
describes the subject, and therefore is
usually a noun, pronoun, or
adjective. Subject complements occur
when there is a linking verb within the
sentence (often a linking verb is a form of
the verb to be).
 The man is a good father. (father = noun
which renames the subject)
 The man seems kind. (kind = adjective which
describes the subject)
 Note: As an example of the difference between
parts of speech and parts of a sentence, a noun
can function within a sentence as subject, direct
object, indirect object, object of a preposition,
or subject complement.
Prepositional Phrase: A phrase that begins with a
preposition (i.e., in, at for, behind, until, after, of,
during) and modifies a word in the sentence. A
prepositional phrase answers one of many
questions. Here are a few examples: “Where?
When? In what way?”
o I like spaghetti for dinner.
o He reads many books in the library.
Kinds of Phrases
There are two kinds of prepositional phrases: adjective
phrases and adverb phrases.
An adjective phrase modifies a noun or pronoun. It
always comes immediately after the noun or pronoun it
modifies:
 Joe is the student with the highest grade.
("with the highest grade" modifies
"student.")
An adverb phrase modifies a verb, adjective, or
adverb. It is used to tell when, where, how, or to what
extent about the word it modifies:
 Megan put her bird in its cage. ("in its
cage" modifies the verb "put.")
Two or More Phrases
When two or more prepositional phrases follow each
other, they may modify the same word, or one phrase
may modify the object in the preceding phrase:
 They arrived at the airport on time. (Both
phrases modify "arrived"; "at the airport"
tells where and "on time" tells when.)
 Chicago is on the northeast tip of Illinois.
("on the northeast tip" modifies "is"; "of
Illinois" modifies "tip.")
Preposition or Adverb?
Many words can be either prepositions or adverbs; you
can distinguish prepositions by their objects.
about Kelly, a noun and the subject of the sentence.
That makes “Fond of brushing her hair” a participial
phrase. The participial phrase doesn’t describe an
action that’s happening currently, but it does help
us understand why Kelly always has soft hair.
Example 2
 The trash can sat in the corner, brimming with
garbage.
Here, the phrase “brimming with garbage” tells us
about the trash can, a noun. “Brimming” is a verb,
but the entire phrase acts as an adjective again.
That makes “brimming with garbage”
another participial phrase!

 Preposition: The bird flew out the

window. ("window" is the object of "out.")
 Adverb: We went out last night. ("out"
has no object.)

Prepositional Phrase or Infinitive

Phrase?
Prepositional phrases can be confused with infinitive
phrases. "To" followed by a verb is an infinitive, but "to"
followed by a noun or pronoun is a prepositional phrase

What is a Participial Phrase?

A participial phrase is a phrase that looks like a
verb, but actually functions as an adjective; it
modifies a noun in the same sentence. Phrases
like this can “spice up” a noun and provide added
description about what it’s doing or what it looks
like.
They’re often used in pieces that need to tell
readers a lot in a few words, like newspaper
articles or even fiction books.

Examples of Participial Phrases

Here are few simple examples of participial phrases
(in green) in action. We really do see them all the
time, even though they sound sort of complicated.
Example 1
 Fond of brushing her hair, Kelly always had
smooth and silky locks.
It might look like Kelly is brushing her hair in the
action of this sentence, but the beginning phrase is
actually an adjective here. It tells us something