Sentence types learning mat
Different types of sentence
Positive and negative sentences
Some sentences are statements, some are questions and
some are instructions or commands. By changing the
order of words you can easily change the type of sentence
that you are writing.
Sentences can be positive or negative. Negative sentences use words like
never, not, nobody, nothing.
For example:
You are going to school. (a statement)
Are you going to school? (a question)
Go to school. (a command or an instruction)
Direct and reported speech
There are two ways of writing down what someone says.
You can write down exactly what someone has said, using
speech marks at the beginning and end of the spoken words:
this is direct speech.
For example:
“I witnessed the crime,” said Fred.
Reported speech is when you write what has been said but
you don’t use the exact words; you report it in your own
speech.
For example:
Fred said that he had witnessed the crime.
You will often use speech in stories and newspaper articles.
For example:
We can save the planet (positive sentence).
We cannot save the planet (negative sentence).
Conditional sentences
A conditional sentence has two clauses. One part of the sentence depends on
the events or situation described in the other part of the sentence.
For example:
If it is sunny on Saturday, then we will go to the beach.
Active and passive voice
Active and passive versions of a sentence say the same thing in different ways.
For example:
The pirates hid the treasure (active).
The treasure was hidden by the pirates (passive).
In the passive sentence the words have been moved around. This sentence is
about what happens to the treasure, rather than being about the actions of the
pirates. The verb changes from the active form (hid) to the passive form (was
hidden).
Using the passive form hides the ‘speaker’ or ‘doer’. This is useful when you are
writing essays, instructions or articles.
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