Parts of a Sentence

Sentences
A sentence is a group of words that has a subject and verb (also called
a predicate) and completes a thought. All sentences have to have at
least a subject and a verb, but most have more.  These other possible
parts of a sentence include objects (direct and indirect), complements,
phrases, and clauses.

See Parts of Speech in Related Pages for more information on types of

words.

See Sentence Structure in Related Pages for more information on how

to create grammatical sentences.

See Sentence Variety in Related Pages for more information on

creating lively, informative, and robust sentences.

Subjects
A complete sentence has both a subject and verb

Many people have seen the movie Titanic.

subject - people

verb - have seen

A subject tells who or what is doing or being something and can

be either a noun or pronoun

A noun is a person, place, or thing such as house, Brittany Spears, or

war.

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun such as he, she, it,
or they.

A subject can be singular or plural

Singular means one such as girl and country. 

Plural means more than one such as girls and countries.

A subject can be more than one noun or pronoun 

Here is an example:

Dogs and cats are popular pets.  The subject of the sentence is Dogs
and cats. 

A subject can end in  –ing 

These are called gerunds: verbs ending in –ing that function as nouns. 

Here are two examples.

Running is good exercise

Dancing can be fun.

A subject can be an infinitive phrase

An infinitive phrase is a group of words beginning with an infinitive.

To fly to a vacation location gives more time to enjoy the destination.

To dive in the coral reefs of Australia is a great experience.

Things that are NOT subjects

Prepositional phrases cannot be the subject of a sentence.

They contain a preposition such as the word in and a noun.

Here are three examples:

in the corner

around the curve

among the flowers

Crossing out any prepositional phrases will allow you to more clearly
see the real subject and verb of a sentence.

Here is an example of a sentence beginning with a prepositional

phrase. 

In the corner of the classroom, the printers for writing

class quietly hum.
By crossing out the prepositional phrases In the corner of the
classroom and for writing class, you can more easily see the subject
and verb which is printers hum.

Introductory phrases are not subjects.

Here is an example:

Walking to school, I saw a horrible car crash.

The words Walking to school are introductory and cannot contain a

subject.

Verbs
Types of Verbs

There are action verbs and linking verbs which are also called state of
being verbs.

An action verb tells what the subject is doing.

Examples of action verbs are run, play, and dance.

A linking verb describes or renames the subject.

Here is an example of a sentence with a linking verb: is.  He is tall.

Sometimes the verb in a sentence is more than one word

Here is an example of a sentence with more than one verb: He jogs

and swims for exercise.  

Things that are NOT verbs:

Infinitives cannot be the verb of a sentence

to go, to play, and to study cannot be the verb in a sentence since they

are infinitives 

–ing words cannot be the verb of a sentence

leaving, going, and jumping are not verbs by themselves. These are

called participles. You have to add a helping verb such as the
following: is leaving, are going, were jumping
Past participles cannot be the verb of a sentence

Past participles such as gone, drunk, and rung are not verbs unless
you add a helping verb such as have or had.  Here is an example.

I never drunk vodka before.

Adding the helping verb have corrects the problem. 

I have never drunk vodka before.

When a question is asked, don’t forget the helping verb!

Here is an example:

Does the file contain anything useful? The word does is the helping

verb.

Adverbs cannot be the verb of a sentence

slowly, not, and always are not verbs.  They are adverbs, words which

describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. 

Here is an example:

She does not always go to school.

The words not and always describe the verb does.

Objects
An object is word that receives the action of a verb

Direct Object

– a word or words that receive the direct action of a verb.

He threw the ball.  Ball is the direct object.

Indirect Objects

– a word or words that receive the indirect action of a verb.

He threw the ball to her.  To her is the indirect object.

Complements
A complement is a word or words that describes or defines the subject.

The young boy was tall for his age.  Tall is the complement.

Phrases
A phrase is a group of words that does not have a subject and verb. 
They are used to further describe nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. While
there are different types of phrases, it is not important to identify which
type of phrase it is.  It is, however, important to be able to identify that
a word group is a phrase and not the subject or verb.

The most common phrases are prepositional, -ing phrases, infinitive

phrases, and appositives.

-ing Phrases

are groups of words that do not have a subject and a verb and that
further describe or define.

The student walking as fast as she could crossed the campus more
quickly than she expected.

Walking as fast as she could is a phrase describing the student.

Prepositional phrases

start with prepositions and need a comma before finishing the rest of
the sentence.

In the mornings, she walks the dog.

By forgetting his homework and failing all the tests, the student failed
the course.

Infinitive phrases

begin with an infinitive (the to form of the verb).

She wanted to see the world.

He worked to buy his car.

Caution:  An infinitive phrase can be a subject.

To see the world is an exciting experience.

To enjoy good food is a favorite pastime.

Appositives

are word groups which are not necessary to the meaning of the
sentence and merely rename or further describe something else in the
sentence. Since they are not necessary to the meaning of the
sentence, such they should be separated by commas:

My teacher, Mrs. Jones, is in the front of the classroom.

Teacher is the subject; is is the verb. Mrs. Jones is just part of the

appositive phrase.

Clauses
A clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb.

She closed the windows.

He completed the work.

Subordinate clauses

Subordinate conjunctions include words such as because, although,

while, though, even though, when, until, unless.    For further
information, see Subordination and Coordination in Related Pages.

Because it was raining.

 Although he took his time.

Here are examples where the dependent clause follows the

independent clause.

Note that there is no comma when the independent clause is before

the dependent clause.

Here are examples where the dependent clause precedes the

independent clause.

Because it was raining, she closed the window

Although he took his time, he completed the work.

Note that when the dependent clause is stated before the independent
clause, it becomes introductory and must be followed by a comma.

Relative clauses

are a type of dependent or subordinate clause which begins with a

relative pronoun that show a relative relationship with the independent
clause and begin with words such as that, which, who, whom, whose.

Note that in the above sentences, there are commas around words
that are not necessary to the meaning of the sentence.  See Commas
in Related Pages. 

Independent clause

An independent clause is a group of words that has a subject and a

verb and can stand alone as a sentence.

Dependent clause

A dependent clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb

and cannot stand alone as a sentence.  They are called dependent
because they depend upon an independent clause to form a
sentence.  Dependent clauses (also called subordinate clauses) begin
with subordinate conjunctions or relative pronouns. Here are examples
of sentences with dependent clauses.

She closed the windows because it was raining.

He completed the work although he took his time.

The woman struggled to open the door which was stuck.

The dog who was running down the block had escaped from the yard.

Oranges which are green should not be eaten.

Oranges, which are high in vitamin C, are good for a snack.