A sentence is a group of words giving a complete thought. A sentence must contain a subject and a verb (although one may be implied). For example: The cat sat on the mat. (Here, the subject is "the cat" and the verb is "sat." The words convey a complete thought. This is a...
The above example sentence is very short. Of course, a sentence can be longer and more complicated, but basically there is always a subject and a predicate. Look at this longer example:sentence subject predicate verb Ram and Tara speak English when they are working....
However, both kinds of clause contain a subject and a verb, so why is one a complete sentence but not the other? The short answer is that dependent clauses always start with subordinating conjunctions. In a way, these subordinating conjunctions turn independent clauses into dependent ones. You...
Polysemy is when one word has different meanings. For example, the word “sound” can sometimes mean “noise,” but other times, it can mean “good condition.” The only way to tell the correct meaning is by context; if someone says they “heard a sound,” you know the meaning is “...
Whether or not to use a comma depends on which clause comes first: If thedependent clausecomes first, place a comma between it and the independent clause. If theindependent clausecomes first, no comma is needed. Here’s a couple of...
For example, the last sentence has 3 prepositions: "of," "in," and "without." You'll use simple prepositions in most sentences. However, this doesn't mean you'll use them in every sentence (all that is required to form a complete sentence is a subject and a verb, e.g., "She ...
“When he arrives” is a dependent clause. You can tell because the first one sounds like it could be a complete sentence by itself, while the second sounds unfinished. In the example above the comma is used correctly, and we haven’t created a comma splice because we didn’t join two...
In this sentence, to read creates a discussion of the idea of reading rather than working as an actionable verb. For example: Tonight, I’ll read chapters six through ten for class. In this sentence, read describes the action of reading and is not an infinitive form. There are two...
Sentence case examples Here are a few examples of sentence case capitalization to help you understand the basic rules. Example 1: AIcan be a force of good or ill in society. Aican be a force of good or ill in society. “AI” is an abbreviation and needs to be capitalized. ...
A“compound”sentenceistwosimplesentencescombinedbyaconjunction.Forexample:Simplesentencesareshortwhilecompoundsentencesarelonger.Theabovesentencecontainstwosimplesentences.“Simplesentencesareshort.”“Compoundsentencesarelonger.”Thethirdkindofsentenceiscalled“complex.”Complexsentences,usingpunctuation,insertandconnect...