ENGLISH ESSENTIALS
Lesson 1
Sentences
What is a sentence? Saying that it is a word or group of words that starts with a capital letter and ends with a
period is only partly right. Sentences also require a subject (someone or something) and a predicate (doing or
being):
Rosemarie conducts the meeting.
In this sentence, Rosemarie is the subject, the someone or something; conducts the meeting is the predicate
that explains what Rosemarie does.
Subjects are usually nouns or pronouns, and predicates always include at least one verb. However, subjects
and predicates may take many different forms. In the following sentences, the subject is underlined once and
the predicate verb is bold and underlined:
He quit.
She was ready to start legal proceedings.
Deborah and Stephen worked together on the BNA account. The executive assistants copied and collated the
report. They are working on a new business plan.
Has he had any trouble with the audit?
Give us your analysis.
In the last sentence in this list, the subject, you, is understood; therefore, only the predicate is present. Some
sentences with an understood subject—for example, Stop!—contain only one word.
Some sentences use a certain type of predicate verb—usually a form of is—to link the subject with a word
that further describes it:
The man is happy.
Occasionally this order is inverted, especially in questions:
Happy is the man.
Is the man happy?
Regardless of the order of the words, these statements are sentences—because they have both a subject and a
predicate.
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Lesson 1: Sentences 163
The most basic sentences consist of a subject and a predicate verb in a simple one-two pattern: They paid. But
sentences are usually more complicated. Many sentences also have modifiers that further describe the subject
or predicate verb; they often have an object as well, someone or something that is acted on by the subject of
the sentence. For example:
In most cases, new customers promptly pay bills.
In this sentence, bills is the object. Customers pay what? They pay bills. In addition, new modifies the subject,
and promptly and in most cases modify the predicate verb. If you took away all these extra words and were
left with only Customers pay, you would still have a sentence.
In the following exercises, underline subjects once and predicate verbs twice:
1. He found a tactful way to tell her.
2. While adding the column, she noticed a couple of errors.
3. The letter gave him a clue to their thinking.
4. Her favorite activity in her new job was analysis of letters from customers.
5. Were his methods fair?
6. Tracy and Susanne were awarded the top positions.
7. Take one.
8. We are sending the replacement postpaid.
9. Under the desk was a wastebasket.
10. Were his supplies all in order?
Some sentences contain more than one subject-predicate set:
Ben discovered the faulty VCR, and he was the one who took it to be fixed.
Notice the comma separating the two subject-predicate sets. You could split the one long sentence into two
shorter sentences at this comma, and each of the new sentences would have a subject and a predicate. But be
careful. Not every sentence containing a comma can be broken in two:
While looking for a replacement, we found Judy.
Only the latter part of this statement has a subject and a predicate verb and could therefore stand alone as a
sentence. The same is true of the following statement:
Because she had the experience, she got the job.
Although the first part of this statement has a subject and a predicate verb (she had), it could not stand along;
because she had the experience actually modifies the predicate, tells why she got the job.
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English Essentials
In the following exercises, circle all the complete sentences.
11. Show me how to do it.
12. Writing and speaking to perfection.
13. Michael, Betty, and Tom, without whom we would not have succeeded.
14. In an emergency, use it to signal passing motorists.
15. Spending enough to make it worthwhile.
16. With everyone else on vacation, she became responsible for completing the report.
17. Since he became a supervisor.
18. Punctuate correctly, and then print the revised document.
19. When our company first got into the ice cream business, profits were spectacular, and soon we became
too confident.
20. Expenses down, profits up.
Including too much in one sentence is just as serious a problem as leaving out a subject or predicate. The
following sentence pastes together too many ideas:
When she was offered the job, she immediately wrote a letter accepting it and then sat down to list the things
she had to do to start work the following Monday, including buying a new outfit and shoes, and then she
decided to take a break so she could call some of her friends to tell them about her good fortune.
This account is easier to understand when broken into shorter sentences. For example:
When she was offered the job, she immediately wrote a letter accepting it. Then she sat down to list the things
she had to do to start work the following Monday, including buying a new outfit and shoes. Then she decided
to take a break so she could call some of her friends to tell them about her good fortune.
Although a sentence may contain more than one subject-predicate set, you must be careful not to use a comma
to combine what should be two separate sentences:
Mike always watches the hockey playoffs, his brother insists that basketball is the real winter sport.
A solitary comma is not strong enough to link these two subject-predicate sets. A comma teamed with a
linking words such as and, but, for, nor, or, so, or yet would solve the problem:
Mike always watches the hockey playoffs, but his brother insists that basketball is the real winter sport.
But if you did not want to add any words, you could use stronger punctuation:
Mike always watches the hockey playoffs. His brother insists that basketball is the real winter sport.
Mike always watches the hockey playoffs; his brother insists that basketball is the real winter sport.