TOEFL Sentence Structure Grammar Basics

Sentence Types

Sentence Anatomy

Sentence Compostion Rules

• Sentence Types

  
  

  Sentences may be simple or compound or complex.

  • Basic (Simple) Sentence Types
    
    

    A simple sentence describes only one thing or idea, and expresses a complete thought, and has only one verb - it contains only an independent (main) clause.

    Even adding adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases to a simple sentence or joining several nouns with a conjunction does not change it into a complex sentence. Main basic sentences include:

    Declarative (Narrative) Sentence: is used to form statements. The subject precedes its verbs.
    
    For example: "Angus has eaten the black pudding."
    
    
    Interrogative Sentence: is used to ask questions. One auxiliary verb precedes the subject, it may or may not involve a wh-phrase.
    
    For example: "Has Angus eaten the black pudding?" or "What has Angus eaten?"
    
    
    Imperative Sentence: is used for commands. There is no subject, though for emphasis there may be a subject, which is always you, but it can always be deleted.
    
    For example: "Eat the black pudding!"
    
    
    Exclamative Sentence: is used to are used to make exclamations. They begin with a what-phrase or a how-phrase, there is no subject auxiliary inversion.
    
    For example: "What a delicious black pudding this is!"
    
    
    Inversion Sentence: is used in several cases.
    
    
    • In questions (routinely): "Are you ready?"
      
    • In expletive constructions: "There were four basic causes of the Civil War." or "Here is the book."
      
    • In attributing speech (occasionally, but optionally): "'Help me!' cried Farmer Brown."
      
    • To give prominence or focus to a particular word or phrase by putting the predicate in the initial position: "Even more important is the chapter dealing with ordnance."
      
    • When a sentence begins with an adverb or an adverbial phrase or clause: "Seldom has so much been owed by so many to so few."
      
    • In negative constructions: "I don't believe a word she says, nor does my brother. Come to think of it, neither does her father."
      
    • After so or nor or neither: "I believe her; so does my brother."
      
    • For emphasis and literary effect: "Into the jaws of Death, / Into the mouth of Hell / Rode the six hundred."
      
      
  • Compound Sentence Types
    
    

    Compound sentences are made up of more than one independent clause joined together with a coordinating conjunction. Every clause is like a sentence with a subject and a verb. A coordinating conjunction goes in the middle of the sentence, it is the word that joins the two clauses together.

    For example, "I walked to the shops, but my husband drove."
    
    
  • Complex Sentence Types
    
    

    Complex sentences describe more than one thing or idea and have more than one verb in them. They are made up of more than one clause, an independent clause (that can stand by itself) and a dependent (subordinate) clause (which cannot stand by itself). Dependent clauses can be:

    • Nominal clause: is one that contains a noun with one of the following that, if, or whether, etc.
      
      It includes subject clause, predicative clause, object clause, attributive clause, etc.
      For example, "I wondered whether the homework was necessary."
      
      
    • adverbial clause: is a word or expression in the sentence that functions as an adverb.
      
      It includes an adverbial clause of place, of time, of manner, of purpose, of clause, of result, of consequence, of concession, of condition, etc.
      For example, "They will visit you before they go to the airport."
      
      
    • adjectival clause: is one that contains one of the following with who, which, or that, etc.
      For example, "I went to the show that was very popular."
      
      

• Sentence Anatomy

  
  

  If it helps you, think about a sentence as if it were a skeleton, the skeleton contains various bones and these bones are put together to form different parts of the body. So are sentences formed by words, the words are the bones and they are put together in different ways to form sentences.

  The elements of a sentence may contain subjects, predicates (verbs), direct objects, indirect objects, prepositional objects, attributes, adverbial modifiers, appositive, complement, parenthetical words, words of affirmation and negation, interjections, etc.
  
  

  1. Verb: When you analyze a sentence, first identify the verb. The verb names and asserts the action or state of the sentence.
     
     
  2. Subject: The subject is the person or thing the sentence is 'about'. Often (but not always) it will be the first part of the sentence. The subject will usually be a noun phrase (a noun and the words, such as adjectives, that modify it) followed by a verb.
     
     
  3. Object: Some verbs have an object (always a noun or pronoun). The object is the person or thing affected by the action described in the verb. Objects come in two types, direct and indirect. The direct object refers to a person or thing affected by the action of the verb. The indirect object refers to a person or thing who receives the direct object.
     
     
  4. Adverbial: An 'adverbial' or 'adverbial phrase' is a word or expression in the sentence that does the same job as an adverb; that is, it tells you something about how the action in the verb was done.
     
     
  5. Complement: A complement is used with verbs like be, seem, look etc. Complements give more information about the subject or, in some structures, about the object.
     
     

• Sentence Compostion Rules

  
  

  Even though most of us either flunked out or fell asleep during English grammar class in school, it is an integral part of writing and one section of TOEFL test. While there are hundreds of rules of grammar, some of them are absolute essentials that everyone should master.

  1. Single Subject-Verb: Each sentence (clause) has only one subject and one verb.
     
     
  2. Agreement: Agreement in a sentence refers to all of the parts of the sentence corroborating with each other. Without sentence agreement you have all-out civil war in your sentence and no one knows what is going on. If your sentence parts don’t agree with each other you will have to jump in and mediate, causing hard feelings all around. It includes Subject-Verb agreement, Pronoun-Noun agreement, etc.
     
     
  3. Parallelism: Parallelism refers to ideas or action in a series should be parallel in form.
     
     
  4. Comparison: When comparing, please make sure you compare the same things.
     
     
  5. Tense: Tense refers to time. What time is it in your sentence? Whatever time it is, it should remain consistent throughout your whole piece of writing. If it was last week you are talking about, stay there. There are three tenses in writing, past tense, present tense and future tense.
     
     
  6. Voice: In sentences written in active voice, the subject performs the action expressed in the verb; the subject acts. In sentences written in passive voice, the subject receives the action expressed in the verb; the subject is acted upon. The agent performing the action may appear in a "by the . . ." phrase or may be omitted.
     
     
  7. Mood: There are 3 moods in English, the indicative mood, the imperative mood, and the subjunctive mood.
     
     The indicative mood is used to make statements and to ask questions. Most of the verbs that you commonly use are in the indicative mood.
     
     The imperative mood is used to express a comand or a request. The imperative mood is found only in the present tense, second person. The subject is always the pronoun you which is seldom expressed.
     
     The subjenctive mood is used to express a wish or a condition which is contrary to fact.
     
     
  8. Run-On Sentences: A run-on sentence is one that is just too darned long! Not only is it too long, it is incorrect. Usually, a run-on sentence can be made into two or more sentences with a little punctuation and style.
     
     
  9. Sentence Fragments: A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence that does not include both noun and verb.
     
     
  10. Wasted Words: A big no-no. Sometimes we throw in words just to round out our sentences, or we over-describe something.
      
      
  11. There are some other rules that are rarely tested in TOEFL, like, Punctuation, Spelling, Capitalization, etc.
      
      

   

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