English Sentence Structure - English Grammar

 In this Blog, you can learn about sentence structure in English

How to construct all kinds of sentences in English, from the simplest possible sentences, to long, complex sentences which contain may different ideas.

What's the simplest sentence we can make in English.

* Part One - How to Build a Simple Sentence.

What does every sentence in English we need?

Every sentence need a verb.

The simplest sentence is an imperative, That means when we tell someone to do something.

For example: 

- Run!

- Leave!

- Work!

These are the simplest complete sentences we can make in English; they're just one word long! Of course, most sentence are longer than this. Most sentences that are longer than one word also need a noun before the verb. This noun is the subject. With a subject plus a verb,  can make simple sentences like :

Subject + verb

- He runs.

- She left.

- They're working.

We can see that the verb can be in different forms: past or present, simple or continuous. The verb form doesn't change the sentence. These are all the same : subject plus verb. Of course, These sentences aren't very interesting. We can't say much with short sentences like these.

- Take the sentence he runs.

- What could we add after runs to make it longer?

- We could add an adverb of place: 

  Subject + verb

- He runs...

--> He runs around the park.

We could add an adverb of time: 

- He runs every morning. or We could add both:

- He runs around the park every morning.

We Can add an adverb of manner:

- He runs slowly

We can see that we have many choices, but we choices are also limited. In this case, we can use different kinds of adverbs, but there are also things we can't use.

For Example, we can't use another verb after run, we can't use an adjective, and we can't use a noun, or at least we can't use a noun with this meaning of run.

This is an important point, so let's look at it in more detail.

* Part Two - Complements - What Comes Next?

To build grammatically complete sentences in English, there's one important question:

What needs to come next?

For example, We saw the sentence he runs. 

That's a complete sentence. We can put a full stop after runs, and it's correct. It's very basic, but it's correct.

What about these: 

- She likes

- He wants

- We go

These aren't complete sentences. They aren't complete, very simply, because they aren't finished. Look at the first sentence: 

- She likes. She has to like something. 

- He Wants What does he Want?

We can't just 'want', we have to want something.

- We go... Where?

At this point, we want to teach a word : Complement.

The Complement is the thing we add after a verb to make a sentence complete. A complement can have many different forms. It can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb. These thing can be single words or phrases.

For example, when we say 'noun', we also mean noun phrases. So, table is a noun, and the wooden table which my grandmother gave me is also a noun. Both nouns refer to one object - one table.

From this , a noun can be one word, or a phrase.

Let's Practice. 

What comes next?

- She likes ...what? 

What are the possible complements for She likes?

 

- She likes strawberries.

- She like swimming.

- She likes getting up before the sun rises.

- She like to listen to music while she works.

We can see that there's more than one possible complement: we can use a noun, a gerund (a verb with -ing which acts like a noun), a gerund phrase, or an infinitive verb with'to'. so we haev many choices. Only certain structures are possible.

The idea of complements isn't just for the first verb in the sentence. many words need a complement.

For example, look at one of the sentences we just saw:

What come next?

- She like getting up before the sun rises.

She likes getting up.. When? Why? How? We need a complement after getting up to complete the idea.

She like getting up before... Before also need a complement. Before What? She likes getting up before the sun... This also doesn't work, because it doesn't make sense because the sun need a complement. Before the sun does what? She like getting up before the sun rises. We have a sentence which is both grammatically complete and which communicates meaning.

What should we remember from this?

- Remember that when we use a particular word, we have limited choices in what kind of word we can use next. To speak or write in clear, correct English we don't just need to know English words. We need to know what can come next.

For example, with a verb like like or want, it's not enough to know the verb. We need to know whether the verb needs a complement, and what complements are-or aren't - possible. 

This is why it's good to learn vocabulary in full phrases and sentences. That way, we know how to use the words we learn to make sentences we can use in spoken or written English. By using can build many simple English sentences.