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Welcome to Mrs. Pentico's Presentation on Sentence Structure. I have noticed a common
challenge for our students in Independent Study English classes is the grammar component
of the class. I have created this video to give you a very brief overview of what a sentence
is and how to tell the difference between the three main parts of a sentence.
The first thing you will need to remember about a sentence is that it must express a complete
thought. If you read a group of words and it sounds like something is missing, then
it is called a fragment, as exemplified in the cartoon. You may know what he was trying
to say, but it is still considered a fragment because he didn't get to finish the thought.
In addition to a complete thought, every sentence must also contain both a subject and a predicate.
If you don't remember what these are, come back to youtube when we are done here and
watch The Tale of Mr. Morton; he is the subject of this love story and what he does to show
his love is the predicate..
So, let's take a closer look at what makes up a subject and predicate.
Subjects can be nouns that refer to persons, places, things or ideas. They can be pronouns
used in place of a noun; for instance I could say "she" instead of Maria or "it"
to refer to a book. Subjects could also be a group words working together, masquerading
as a noun; for instance, in the sentence, "Walking to school is good for your health,"
"Walking to school" is a group of words doing the job of a noun and acting as the
subject.
Commands are when someone tells somebody to do something. In a command, the subject is
always "you" without it having to be said; it is understood. When your friend
is talking to you, he doesn't need to say "You, come here.". Because he is looking
at you and directing his voice toward you, you know who he is talking to ...YOU!. So,
you, be careful with those commands.
On to predicates. Predicates most importantly tell you something about the subject, what
it does or is. and it includes the verb of the sentence. There are two main types of
verbs, action verbs and linking verbs. Action verbs are just that- things that you do, both
physical and mental activities. Linking verbs are verbs that connect the subject with words
that describe or rename it like "Victor is tall."
There are some verbs that I call "two faced" because they can be part of the action verb
category if they are helping an action verb. "My mom is calling me" includes "is"
as a helping verb, part of the action verb phrase "is calling." On the other hand,
"My mom is here" is is the only verb in that sentence, linking together mom, your subject, and the word here.
Sometimes, you will need complements to finish expressing a complete thought. Even though
a sentence has a subject and predicate, it may sound like it is still missing something,
like saying "he became" . Became What? You don't know and that is why you need
a complement, either an object or a subject complement.
Objects include both direct objects and indirect object, and can only come after action verbs.
In "Jennifer bought the book", book is your direct object. Sentences may also include
Indirect objects which come between the verb and direct object and tell you for whom/what
the action is being done. In "Jennifer bought me the book", Me comes between your verb
"bought"" and the direct object "book" so me is the indirect object. "Jennifer
bought the book for me" has no indirect object because me is not between the verb and the direct object..
Subject complements come after linking verbs and tell you what the subject is or describes
the subject in some way. Predicate Nominatives are nouns renaming the subject. In the "Mark
is a Gamer, ""Gamer" is renaming the Mark. Predicate Adjectives describe
the subject, as in "Bella is beautiful," where "beautiful" describes Bella.
SO, what is the best way to tell the difference between the 2 types of complements...Remember
to find that verb. Action verbs will only be followed by a direct object and possibly
an indirect object. Linking Verbs are only followed by predicate nominatives or predicate
predicate adjectives.
For example "Many people like science fiction movies." What's the verb? Yes, like is
the verb and it is an action verb. What do they like? Movies so that is your direct object.
Sometimes you will also find an indirect object between the verb and direct object as in the
sentence "My grandmother sent me a birthday card" with me acting as the indirect object coming between the verb sent and the direct object.
Linking verbs, like am, is, was, were, are, will be followed by either a noun like singer
which is a predicate nominative in the sentence "Miguel became an amazing singer" or by
an adjective as in the sentence "William was hungry after school" in which hungry
is the predicate adjective describing William.
Please keep these basic ideas about sentences and their structures in mind while you do
your grammar work. Hopefully, you will feel more confident as you approach these exercises.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.