Learn English Grammar: The Sentence

Do you know how to build a sentence in English? In this lesson, you will learn the basic parts of a simple sentence, or independent clause. Knowing this will make it easier to understand any sentence in written English. Understanding how these different parts of a sentence work together to form meaning will help you write better in English. The knowledge in this lesson is essential for any Independent User or Proficient User of English. Quiz yourself here:
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<br>TRANSCRIPT
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<br>Hi again. Im Adam. Welcome back to . Today I have a very important lesson, I think, for all of you that will help you very much with your reading, but especially your writing skills. Okay?
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<br>Today were going to look at the sentence. What is a sentence? Now, I know that all of you are saying: Well, we know what a sentence is. Weve learned this a thousand times before. Right? I know what youve learned and I know what you havent learned, many of you; some of you have, of course. The sentence has a very basic structure, theres a very basic component that must be involved or included in a sentence, and a lot of grammar teachers, a lot of English teachers dont teach this. Okay? All of you, Im sure have by now heard of SVO, but have you heard of SVsC? Have you heard of SVC? Maybe yes, maybe no. But Im sure a lot of you are going: What? Ive never heard of these things before. Well, were going to talk about this in one second.
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<br>Before we talk about a sentence, we have to talk about a clause. Now, what is a clause? Im sure youve heard this word before as well, but just in case, a clause is any subject, verb combination. Its a group of words that must include a subject and a verb. Now, also very important to remember: it must be a tense verb, meaning that it must take a time; past, present, future. Okay? No base verb, no infinitive verb. So that is a clause. Now, there are two types of clauses. Okay? We have independent clauses and we have dependent clauses. The. These are sometimes called subordinate clauses. Now, every sentence in English to be a grammatically correct sentence must have an independent clause. It doesnt need a dependent clause, but it could have one. The independent clause could include a dependent clause as the subject or object. Well talk about that after.
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<br>So an independent clause has a subject and a verb, and it can stand by itself. It can contain a complete idea by itself. Okay? So, technically, the shortest sentence you can have in English will be a. Will be an independent clause with a subject and verb. What is the absolute shortest sentence that you can think of? Think of a sentence, the shortest you can possibly make it. Okay? Heres an example: Go! Is this a complete English sentence? Yes. Why? Because it contains an independent clause. Where? We have the implied subject: you and the tense verb: go, the imperative tense go. So this your basic English sentence.
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<br>Now, we have three other types, three basic types and we can of course play with these after. Subject, verb, object. Some independent clauses must have an object, well talk about that in a second. Excuse me. Subject, verb, subject complement. Some sentences must have a subject complement. Subject, verb, complement. Okay? Were going to talk about each of these in a moment. I have the A here because quite often, this complement is ually an adverb phrase or an adverbial. Well talk about that in a second.
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<br>So your basic sentence can be any one of these three. Now, the reason were looking at this. All these structures is because once you understand what must be contained in a sentence, then you can read any English sentence out there that is grammatically correct and be able to understand the main idea of that sentence. Okay? So lets start with SVO.
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<br>Okay, lets look at our SVO type of independent clause: subject, verb, object. Now, first, what is an object? Well, we have two types of objects to talk about. We have the direct object, we have the indirect object. Now, the thing to understand is that the object always answers a question about the verb, it completes the meaning of the verb by asking the questions: What? or: Who? Now, keep in mind that technically, its: Whom? But if you say: Who? Ill let it go this time. Okay? Formal academic writing, Whom?, Whom?, Whom? IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, all that - Whom? not: Who? In the object position. But the direct object answers: What? or: Who? about the verb. Okay? Well get back to that.