Monday, May 15, 2017

The Simple Sentence

simple sentence has the most basic elements that make it a sentence: a subject, a verb, and a completed thought.
 These are the possible structures in a simple sentence:

A. Subject + Verb

The visitors have arrived.
The old man died.
A verb in this structure is called an intransitive verb, e.g. arrive, die, rise, wait.

B. Subject + Verb + Object

The kids have eaten all the sandwiches.
The shop sells computers.
A verb in this structure is called a transitive verb, e.g. eat, sell, take, wear.

C. Subject + Verb + Complement

This jacket is nice.
The song became a big hit.
A verb in this structure is called a linking verb, e.g. be, become, get, look, seem. The complement can be an adjective phrase (nice) or a noun phrase (a big hit).

D. subject + Verb + Adverbial

The match is tomorrow.
we got on the bus.
The meetings are every month.
An adverbial can be an adverb phrase (tomorrow), a prepositional phrase (on the bus) or a noun phrase (every month).

E. Subject + Verb + Object + Object

We should give the children presents.
Sarah sent me a text message.
Here there is a direct object (a text message) and an indirect object (me).

F. Subject + Verb + Object + Complement

The project kept everyone very busy
All the publicity made the song a big hit.
here the complement (a big hit) relates to the object of the clause (the song).

G. Subject + Verb + Object + Adverbial

I put my mobile in my pocket.
The police got the car out of the river.
Here the adverbial (out of the river) relates to the object (the car).

H. We can add an extra adverbials to any of the clause structures.

the visitors have just arrived.
To my surprise, Sarah actually sent me a text message right away.

Source:

http://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/sentences.htm
Oxford learner's pocket Grammar. John Eastwood. 2008. Oxforxd University Press. 


Good quotes of the day:




Friday, April 28, 2017

WORDS AND PHRASES (Parts of Speech)

Hello active learners! This time i want to share the very basic English material. So here we go...

There are eight words classes in English, sometimes called 'part of speech'

  1. Verb : be, bring, decide, look, must, take, write
  2. Noun : car, dog, idea, London, sadness, time
  3. Adjective : big, different, high, natural
  4. Adverb : badly, often, probably, soon
  5. Determiner : a, every, my, the, this
  6. Pronoun : him, myself, something, you
  7. Conjunction : and, because, but, if
  8. Preposition : at, by, to, with
Some words belong to more than one word class. Here are some examples.

promise (verb) : I promise I won't be late.
promise (noun) : I won't be late and that's a promise.

human (noun) : When did humans first land on the moon?
human (adjective) : We're defending our human rights.

that (determiner) : Look at that poster.
that (pronoun) : This is the car that I'd like.
that (conjunction) : I just know that it's true.

There are five kinds of phrase:

A VERB phrase has ordinary verb. There can also be one or more auxiliaries in front of the ordinary verb.
    was, arrives, can see, don't know, have been thinking

A NOUN phrase has a noun. There can also be a determiner and/or an adjective in front of the noun.
    music, some money, a good game

An ADJECTIVE phrase is often just an adjective. There can also be an adverb of degree in front of the adjective.
    great, very old, most ridiculous

An ADVERB phrase is often just an adverb. There can be an adverb of degree in front of the adverb.
    sometimes, very carefully.

A PREPOSITIONAL phrase is a preposition + noun phrase.
    on the road, by Friday, for a long time

Source: Oxford Learner's Pocket Grammar Book by John Eastwood. 2008. Oxford University Press.


That's all for today, keep learning everyday, every time, everywhere!
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