A Guide to Writing Sentences in the English Language
In an earlier article, The 8 Basic Word Types in the English Language, we looked at the eight core word types you’ll find in the English language. In this article, I’ll show you how to put those building blocks together to form clear and correct English sentences.
Writing these sentences in English doesn’t have to be complicated, as most everyday sentences follow a simple pattern. In today’s article, we’ll focus on the basic structure of English sentences, how to build them word by word and add details as we go.
Let’s get started!
The most common sentence structure in English is:
Subject + Verb (+ Object)
Let’s break this down with the example sentence from the previous article about word types (I highly encourage you to reference that article via this link):
‘Jane walks.’
In this sentence, ‘Jane’ is the subject (the person performing the action), and ‘walks’ is the verb (the action itself). In and of itself, this is the simplest complete type of sentence in English.
Now, if we want, we can add an object that receives the action. For example:
‘Jane walks her dog.’
In this sentence, ‘her dog’ is the object of the verb ‘walks’.
Adding details with adjectives and adverbs:
Now that we have the basic sentence structure, we can start adding details to give more information. We’re going to do that with the following word types:
- Adjectives: which describe attributes of nouns or pronouns
- Adverbs: which are used to modify or give more information about a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole phrase.
Let’s take the following example:
‘Jane briskly walks her small dog.’
In this example, ‘briskly’ is the adverb that tells us how she walks, and ‘small’ is the adjective that describes the dog. Adding these two words instantly makes the sentence more intricate.
Adding context with prepositions:
Prepositions help define the relationships between nouns, pronouns, and other words. They tell us where, when, and how something happens.
For example:
‘Jane walks her small dog in the park after lunch.’
In this example, the preposition ‘in’ (the park) tells us where the action happens, and the preposition ‘before’ (lunch) tells us when it happens. As you can see, the prepositions add significant context and clarity to the situation.
Adding conjunctions to connect ideas:
When expressing more complex ideas, you can use conjunctions to connect parts of a sentence, words, or clauses together.
Let’s continue with the example of Jane and her dog:
‘Jane briskly walks her small dog in the park, and her sister walks alongside her with her cat.’
In this example, the word ‘and’ is the conjunction that connects the two ideas in one sentence.
Adding interjections to express emotion:
To add emotion or a reaction to a sentence, you can use interjections. For example:
‘Jane walks her small dog in the park and throws a ball. ‘Hey!’, she exclaims as a girl shoots the ball into the river.’
In this example, ‘Hey!’ is an interjection that expresses Jane’s surprised reaction and emotion to the girl shooting the ball into the river.
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I hope you enjoyed today's blog and that it helped you understand the English language just a little bit better! Learning grammar can sometimes be a bit intimidating as a language learner, so don’t rush and take all the time you need to review this topic.
If you have a request for another English language topic, please feel free to let me know, and I’ll happily dedicate a blog or language exercise to it!
Until next time!