Introduction to Grammar

A simple sentence has only one subject-verb combination and expresses one complete thought.

• Our daughter cooks.
  • Daughter is the subject, and cooks is the verb.

A simple sentence may have more than one subject or more than one verb.

• Shorts and T-shirts sway on the clothesline.
  • Shorts and T-shirts are the two subjects; sway is the verb.
• The children splashed and squealed in the swimming pool.
  • Children is the subject; splashed and squealed are the two verbs.

Notice that simple sentences may contain phrases. A phrase does not contain a subject and a verb. To identify the sentence type, eliminating phrases may be helpful. In the above sentences, "on the clotheseline" and "in the swimming pool" are prepositional phrases.

Types of phrases include:

• prepositional phrase
  • The group traveled through Spain and Italy.
• adjective phrase
  • The beacon from the lighthouse stayed on all night.
• adverb phrase
  • The snow fell like feathers.
• verbal phrases
  • A participle is a verb that can be used as an adjective. a participial phrase is a group of related words that contains a participile and that acts as an adjective.
    • Seeing itself in the mirror, the duck seemed bewildered.
  • A gerund is a verb form ending in -ing that is used as a noun. A gerund phrase includes the gerund and all the words related to the gerund.
    • Shouting at people does not make them understand you better. (gerund as subject)
    • Most of the players obeyed the stern warning from the coach. (gerund as object of the verb)
    • The child spelled her name by carefully printing each letter. (gerund as object of the preposition by)
  • An infinitive is a verb form that can be used as noun, an adjective, or an adverb. An infinitive has the word to directly before the plain form of the verb, as in to win, to go, and to consider. An infinitive phrase consists of an infinitive together with its complements and modifiers.
    • To lift those weights takes a lot of strength. (noun that is the subject of the sentence.
    • Peanuts and raisins are good snacks to take on a camping trip. (adjective modifying snacks)
    • The crowd grew quiet to hear the speakers. (adverb modifying the adjective quiet)
• appositive phrases - an appositive is a noun or pronoun that explains the noun or pronoun it follows.
  • Troy, a good friend of mine, is camping with us.

In addition to phrases, simple sentences may contain direct objects, indirect objects, predicate nouns, or predicate adjectives.

Refer to this website for a review of the five simple sentence patterns.