Sentence Sense

• Sentence Structure
• Verb Tense and Verb
Use
• Fragments, Run-ons,
Comma Splice, etc
Sentence
Structure
 Subjects
 Predicates
 Phrases
 Clauses
 Connectives
 Sentence Structure
•The analysis and deconstruction of a sentence is
a vital skill in understanding language
•Sentence analysis is not always easy but it is an

essential tool in understanding how language

works
•Sentence analysis is often referred to as

"Grammar" but the latter is a sometimes

imprecisely used word for "a systematic account
of the rules governing language"
•Analysis of a particular sentence will

demonstrate that you have understanding of:

• meaning of grammar
• what rules are
• what is accepted usage
• how to interpret meaning and its significance
•

•
 Subject and Predicate
 A subject of a sentence can be a noun or pronoun that is
partnered with an action verb. It has the grammatical function
in a sentence of relating its constituent (a noun phrase) by
means of the verb to any other elements present in the
sentence, i.e. objects, complements and adverbials.
 Philanthropists donated millions to charity.
 Good friends are loyal.
 (You) Call the plumber please.
 A predicate is a verb that expresses the
subject's action or state of being. It must contain a verb, and
the verb requires, permits, precludes other sentence elements
to complete the predicate.
 These elements are:
 OBJECTS (direct , indirect , prepositional ),
 The dog on the hillside howled at the moon.
 PREDICATIVES (aka predicate complements : subject
complements and object complements)
 The dog has often howled at the moon
 ADVERBIAL .
 Has the dog howled at the moon lately?
Phrases
 Phrases are group of words bound
together by the thought it
expresses.
 It may have a subject or a verb but
not both at the same time.
 It can function as nouns,
adjectives or adverbs.
 It can be classified into the ff:
prepositional phrase
participial phrase
infinitive phrase
Prepositional Phrase
 One that is introduced by a preposition and
is very common in writing.
 It can be used either an Adjective:
 A man with a cane is not blind.
 I took the bird from the basket and let it fly away.
 The portrait of the Madonna was stolen from the
National Museum.
 It can be used either an Adverb:
 Mr. Santos lost his wallet in the bus.
 It was thoughtful of you to say that.
 The insect moved away from the fire.
Participial Phrase
 introduced by a participle and is used
only as an adjective.
 Example:
The man holding a rooster walked
toward the cockpit.
The tree fallen dead protected the
nipa hut for years.
Dancing the samba, the crowd circled
around the dining table.
Infinitive Phrase
 introduced by an infinitive and can be
used as a noun, and adjective or
another adverb.
 Infinitive Phrase used as an Adjective:
 The desire to be a success is every man’s wish.
 The president is confident of his ability to
manage the company.
 The plan to sell the school met with several
objections.
 Infinitive Phrase used as an Adverb:
 The cadets were ready to obey their commandant.
 The dog jumped into the water to retrieve the
ball.
 It takes too long to bake a cake.
Clauses
 are group of words with a subject and a verb. A clause maybe used
as a noun, an adjective or an adverb.
 Clauses used as nouns are called noun clauses.
 That the strikers were dissatisfied with their wages,
is quite obvious.
 A prize will be given to whoever can outdistance the
class runner.
 The opinion, that punk music are for weirdos, is his.
 Adjective clauses are clauses usually introduced by relative
pronouns and, therefore, are also called relative clauses.
 The test, which was the easiest, took us ten minutes to
finish.
 The man, who saw the incident, refused to testify.
 He took the advice that completely changed his life.
 An Adverb clause is a clause that is introduced by a subordinating
conjunction and functions as an adverb.
 Because he dislikes children, Mario remained a
bachelor.
 The criminal became violent after he spent days in
solitary confinement.
 Mona went into tantrums, although she had been promised
a bedtime story.
Connectives
 Connectives are words used to
join words, phrases and
clauses.
 The most common connectives
are conjunctions and
prepositions.
 Conjunctions : are words
that are used to connect
words or groups of words in
sentences.
 Preposition: a word that
shows the relationship of a
noun or pronoun to some
other word.
Conjunctions
 Besides serving as a connectives,
conjunction also indicate the
relationship of ideas such as
contrast, comparison, result or
condition.
 There are four types of conjunction
namely:
 Coordinating Conjunction
 Correlative Conjunctions
 Subordinating Conjunctions
 Conjunctive Adverb
Coordinating Conjunction
 Coordinating conjunction link words,
phrases, clauses or sentences of
equal rank
 Common coordinating conjunctions are: And
• But • Or • For • Nor • Yet • So
 The sky and the sea are beautiful in the
Tropics. (2 nouns)
 She is very intelligent, yet, she is never
snobbish about it. (2 sentences)
 The ribs of the coconut palm or the shell
of the coconut fruit can be turned
into functional objects. (2 phrases)
Correlative Conjunctions
 Correlative conjunctions are words used
in pairs to indicate relationship
between two ideas.
 Common correlative conjunctions are: as …
as • either … or • not so … as •
neither … nor • not only … but also •
both … and • whether … or • no sooner …
than
 No sooner did the trial begin than the
first witness fainted on the stand.
 Both the man and his wife left the
country suddenly.
 Both the man and his wife left the
country suddenly.
Subordinating
Conjunctions
 words that connect the ideas of the
subordinate clause (dependent) to that of
the main clause (independent).
 Common subordinating conjunctions are:
Because • If • Since • As • as if •
While • Although • Unless • Before
• so that • After • Until • Till •
When • Whenever • Where • Wherever
• How • Whether
 We cannot find where he hid the treasure.
 We may be forced to begin legal proceedings,
if you don’t pay your overdue account.
 Although the skies were blue, there was
slight drizzle.
Conjunctive Adverb
 Conjunctive Adverb is sometimes called
transitional adverb or sentence
connectors .
 It joins two independent clauses and at the
same time acts as an adverb in that it
modifies the action of its clause.
 Common Conjunctive adverbs are: accordingly
• again • all the same • also •
anyhow • besides • consequently •
for that reason • henceforth •
hence • in fact • indeed
 Cheating has become rampant at the
polls; for that reason, the votes
were nullified.
 The jury found him guilty; still we
believe that he is a victim of
circumstances.
 We are holding a bazaar this weekend;
consequently, we are excused from
our Monday classes.
Preposition
 Common prepositions:
 About • above • across • beneath • beside, -s • between •
beyond • concerning • through 7 despite • down •
during • except, -ing • throughout • outside •
regarding • without • toward • underneath • within
 Compound Prepositions:
 •as for • as to • aside from • because of • by means of
• by way of • contrary to • due to • exclusive of •
for fear of • for the sake of • in accordance to • in
addition to • in behalf of • in case • in favor of •
in regard to • in spite of • in view of • on account
of • owing to • pertaining to • regardless of • with
reference to • with regard to • with the •exception
of
Preposition

 A preposition is usually followed by its object and forms

a prepositional phrase.
 in the yard • of the clock • under the baton • with
the promise • at the table • through the hall •
up the sidewalk • between them
 Prepositions are often used in idiomatic expressions or
stereotyped expressions, so that the familiarity with
these expressions will help in the choice of the
correct preposition.
 Examples of idiomatic or stereotyped expressions
that used prepositions: •prejudicial to •
interested in • run away with • exclude from •
consist of • resulted in • graduated from • fade
out • embark on • up to • rub on • bring up •
free from • at the turn of •the century • beat
about (around) the bush • avail of • blind to •
drop in • cry out • independent of

 COMMON ERRORS IN
WRITING :
FRAGMENTS , RUN - ON ,
COMMA SPLICE , ETC
Sentence Fragment
 Sentence Fragment: is a group of words that does not make sense
at all. Sometimes a group of words looks like a sentence but is
actually not.
 Water pollution which can be prevented through waste water
treatment
 Population rapidly increasing
 To avoid sentence fragments, make certain that each sentence
contains a subject and a verb, and make sense.
◦ To correct the first example, delete the relative pronoun
‘which’ and replace with an auxiliary verb.
◦ Water pollution can be prevented though waste water
treatment.
◦ Another way is to retain the subordinate and add a complete
predicate.
◦ Water pollution, which can be prevented though waste
water treatment, is a government initiated project.
◦ The second example contains participial phrase. To correct
such fragment, change the particle to predicates by using
auxiliary verbs or participles main verbs.
◦ Population is rapidly increasing.
Complete Sentence
 Sentence is a word or a group of words expressing a complete
thought.
 A sentence has a subject (a person or thing spoken of in
sentence) and a predicate (that which tells something about
the subject).
 A sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a
punctuation mark – a period, a question mark or an exclamation
point.
◦ The candidate addressed the crowd.
 SENTENCE = subject and predicate + complete thought
◦ addressing the crowd
FRAGMENT (phrase) = NO subject and predicate + NO
complete thought
◦ the candidate addressing the crowd
FRAGMENT (phrase) = NO subject/predicate (-ing verb
without helping verb) + NO complete thought
◦ while the candidate addressed the crowds
FRAGMENT (dependent clause) = subject and predicate +
NO complete thought
Elliptical Sentence
 Skilled writers sometimes use sentence fragments for
the purpose of style. These are called elliptical
sentences.
 An elliptical sentence is a grammatically incomplete
group, a part of a sentence without a subject or
predicate or both, but the omitted parts are
understood from the context.
 This is common in recording dialogues or giving answers
to question like:
“Where have you been?”
“In the library.”
“Did you work on your assignment?”
“Yes.”
 Or in some exclamatory or transitional statement like:
Fine!
What a mess (that was)!
Never again (will I let him enter my hours)!
Now (here is) another important matter!
◦
 Run-On Sentences
 Run-On Sentences are also called fused sentences
 It consists of two or more grammatically correct sentences
written as if they were one sentence. The reader is
confused because the writer has not indicated where one
complete thought ends and another complete thought
begins.
 Writers make this error by joining two independent clauses
into a compound sentence without using any punctuation
between them.
Tom read the novel his friend saw the movie.
 This sentence can be repaired in three ways:
◦ by adding a comma and an appropriate coordinating conjunction
Tom read the novel, but his friend saw the movie.
◦ by placing a semicolon between two clauses
Tom read the novel; his friend saw the movie.
◦ by adding the needed punctuation and an appropriate conjunctive
adverb.
Tom read the novel; however, his friend saw the movie.
Comma Splice
 Another major errors can occur when constructing
compound sentences is comma splice.
 Writers make this error when they try to separate the two
independent clauses in a compound sentence with
a comma alone.
 A comma is not a strong enough punctuation mark to
separate the two independent clauses by itself; thus,
using it causes the clauses to be spliced together.
Tom read the novel, his friend saw the movie.
 This sentence can be repaired in three ways:
◦ By adding an appropriate coordinating conjunction
Tom read the novel, but his friend saw the movie.
◦ By changing the comma to a semicolon
Tom read the novel; his friend saw the movie.
◦ By changing the punctuation and adding an appropriate
conjunctive adverb.
Tom read the novel; however, his friend saw the movie.
•
That ’ s All Folks …