Sentence Structure Types

There are four
types of sentences:
Declarative
Imperative
Exclamatory
Interrogative
• A declarative sentence makes a
statement.
• It is punctuated by a period.
• Example: The dog in the neighbor’s yard
is barking.
• An imperative sentence is a command or polite
request.
• It ends in a period or exclamation mark.
• Examples:
Close the door. (command)
Please be quiet.
(polite request)
• An exclamatory sentence expresses
great emotion or excitement.
• It ends in an exclamation mark.
• Example:
The house is on fire!
An interrogative sentence asks a question.
It ends in a ? mark.
Example: Is it raining?
Now let’s take a pop quiz.
1.Have you made a decision yet?
2.The girl in the white jacket is lost.
3.The Bulldogs won the game in the
last three minutes!
4.Give me a piece of pizza.
5.I did not finish my homework.
6. Where is my science book?
7. Please come with me to the movie.
8. I made a perfect score on this test!
9. Why is John late for our date?
10. Open your locker immediately.
Check your answers…
1. Int
2. Dec 0-1 mistakes EXCELLENT
3. Ex 2-3 mistakes GOOD
4. Imp
5. Dec
4-5 mistakes FAIR
6. Int More than 5 mistakes…
7. Imp view slide show again
8. Ex
9. In
10. Imp
By using the four types of sentences in your writing, you can
make your paragraphs more interesting.
Read the sample paragraph below.
My favorite type of fast food is pizza. I could eat pizza

morning, noon, or night. Pepperoni is my number one choice.
I also like double cheese on top. I wish I could order a pizza
right now.
Boring, right? Let’s see how we can use the four types of
sentences and make it more interesting to the reader.
What is your favorite type
of fast food? My favorite is
pizza. I just love pepperoni and
double cheese. Sometimes I
think I could eat pizza morning,
noon and night! All of this talk
about pizza is making me
hungry. Let’s order a pizza
now.
This summer I visited Six Flags Over Texas.
Several of my friends went with me. We had lots of fun.
There were lots of exciting rides. My favorite was the Titan
rollercoaster. It had lots of twists and turns at 90 miles per hour.
We rode it at least three times. I would like to visit Six Flags again.
Sentence Structure:
Sentence Types
Sentence Types
• Simple
• Compound
• Complex
• Compound-Complex
Basic Elements of Every Sentence
SUBJECT PREDICATE
Basic Elements
SUBJECT PREDICATE
Mary plays tennis.

Simple Sentence
Simple Sentence
• A simple sentence has one
subject and one predicate.

Simple Sentence
Observe how a simple sentence is constructed:
We went to San Juan yesterday.

Simple Sentence
Pronoun Verb Prepositional phrase
We went to San Juan .
Simple subject Complete predicate

SIMPLE SENTENCE
SUBJECT PREDICATE
Mary plays tennis.
one subject one predicate

Simple Sentence
Tom and Mary play tennis.
Compound Subject
&
Simple Sentence
play tennis and swim.

Tom and Mary
Compound Subject Compound Predicate
& &
SIMPLE SENTENCE
with compound subject
Tom and Mary play tennis.

SIMPLE SENTENCE
with compound subject
and
compound predicate
Tom and Mary play tennis and

swim.
Compound Sentence
Compound Sentence
• A compound sentence has more than one part
that can stand alone (independent clauses).
• Independent clauses are connected by

coordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs
or a semi-colon.
Compound Sentence
We went to San Juan, and
most of us danced all night.

Compound Sentence
Subject Verb Prepositional phrase
We went to San Juan,
Coordinating Predicate
Conjunction
and most of us danced all night .
Subject Verb Modifying phrase

Compound Sentence
Use of Coordinating Conjunctions
SUBJECT PREDICATE
SUBJECT PREDICATE
Compound Sentence
Tom swims,
and
Mary plays tennis.

COMPOUND SENTENCE:
COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS
FOR
AND
NOR
BUT
OR
YET
SO
COMPOUND SENTENCE:
Tom swims, and Mary plays tennis.
Clause 1 Clause 2
Independent Independent
COMPOUND SENTENCE:
Tom swims, and Mary plays tennis.
Comma before “and”

in compound
sentences!
COMPOUND SENTENCE:
CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS
MOREOVER
HOWEVER
OTHERWISE
THEREFORE
COMPOUND SENTENCE:
CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS
Bob is handsome; moreover, he is rich.
Clause 1 Clause 2
Independent Independent
COMPOUND SENTENCE:
CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS
Note: Semicolon
before conjunctive
adverb and comma
after conjunctive adverb!
Conjunctive Adverbs “float”
• Conjunctive adverbs are sometimes called

“floating” adverbs because they can be
positioned at the beginning, in the middle,
or at the end of a clause.
CONJUNCTIVE ADVERB:
AT THE BEGINNING, IN THE MIDDLE,AT THE END

Bob is handsome; he is, moreover, rich.
Bob is handsome; he is rich, moreover.
Semicolons
• “If the relation between the ideas expressed

in the main clauses is very close and
obvious without a conjunction, you can
separate the clauses with a semicolon”
(Little, Brown Handbook, 9th Edition, p.
361).
COMPOUND SENTENCE:
SEMICOLON
Tom has benefited from his exercise

program; he is slim and energetic.
Complex Sentence
Complex Sentence
• A complex sentence has at least two parts: one that
can stand alone and another one that cannot
• The part that cannot stand alone is linked to the rest

of the sentence by a subordinating conjunction
Complex Sentence
Since my boyfriend and I wanted to have

fun,
we went to San Juan yesterday.
Complex Sentence
Since we wanted to have fun,
Subordinating Part that cannot stand alone

Conjunction
Subject Predicate
we went to San Juan yesterday.

Complex Sentence
SUBJECT PREDICATE
even though
SUBJECT PREDICATE
Complex Sentence
Bob is popular
even though
he is ugly.
COMPLEX SENTENCE:
SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS
The most common subordinating

conjunctions are "after," "although,"
"as," "because," "before," "how,"
"if," "once," "since," "than,"
"that," though," "till," "until,"
"when," "where," "whether,” and
while."
COMPLEX SENTENCE:
Bob is popular even though he is ugly.
Clause 1 Clause 2
Independent Dependent
COMPLEX SENTENCE:
Even though Bob is ugly, he is popular.
Clause 1 Clause 2
Dependent Independent
Compound-Complex Sentence
• This type of sentence has more than one part that
can stand alone, and at least one that cannot.
• Conjunctions link the different parts of this

sentence.
my boyfriend and I went to San Juan yesterday,
and we danced all night.

Subordinating
Conjunction

Part that cannot stand alone
my boyfriend and I went to San Juan,
Coordinating Subject Predicate

Conjunction
and we danced all night.

Mike is popular
because
he is good looking,
but
he is not very happy.

Exercises
Say if the following sentences are:

Simple, compound, complex or compound-
complex.
1. The bell rang.
2. Bridget ran the first part of the race, and Tara
biked the second part.
3. He stands at the bottom of the cliff while the
climber moves up the rock.
4. The skier turned and jumped.
5. Naoki passed the test because he studied hard
and understood the material.
Answers
1. Simple
2. Compound
3. Complex
4. Simple
5. Compound-complex
1. Because Kayla has so much climbing experience , we
asked her to lead our group.
2. You and I need piano lessons.
3. I planned to go to the hockey game, but I couldn’t get
tickets.
4. Dorothy likes white water rafting, but she also enjoys
kayaking.
5. There are many problems to solve before this
program can be used, but engineers believe that they
will be able to solve them soon.
Answers
1. Complex
2. Simple
3. Compound
4. Compound
5. Compound-complex
References
Writing Academic English, Second Edition, by Alice

Oshima and Ann Hogue. White Plains: Addison,
Wesley, Longman, 1999.
The Little, Brown Handbook, by H. Ramsey Fowler and
Jane E. Aaron, Pearson, 2004.

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There are four

Read the sample paragraph below.

My favorite type of fast food is pizza. I could eat pizza

Several of my friends went with me. We had lots of fun.

There were lots of exciting rides. My favorite was the Titan

rollercoaster. It had lots of twists and turns at 90 miles per hour.

Mary plays tennis.

• A simple sentence has one

subject and one predicate.

Observe how a simple sentence is constructed:

We went to San Juan yesterday.

Pronoun Verb Prepositional phrase

We went to San Juan .

Simple subject Complete predicate

Mary plays tennis.

one subject one predicate

Tom and Mary play tennis.

play tennis and swim.

Compound Subject Compound Predicate

Tom and Mary play tennis.

Tom and Mary play tennis and

• Independent clauses are connected by

We went to San Juan, and

most of us danced all night.

We went to San Juan,

Subject Verb Modifying phrase

Use of Coordinating Conjunctions

Mary plays tennis.

Tom swims, and Mary plays tennis.

Tom swims, and Mary plays tennis.

Comma before “and”

Bob is handsome; moreover, he is rich.

Bob is handsome; moreover, he is rich.

• Conjunctive adverbs are sometimes called

Bob is handsome; moreover, he is rich.

• “If the relation between the ideas expressed

Tom has benefited from his exercise

• The part that cannot stand alone is linked to the rest

Since my boyfriend and I wanted to have

Since we wanted to have fun,

Subordinating Part that cannot stand alone

we went to San Juan yesterday.

The most common subordinating

Bob is popular even though he is ugly.

Even though Bob is ugly, he is popular.

• Conjunctions link the different parts of this

Since we wanted to have fun,

my boyfriend and I went to San Juan yesterday,

and we danced all night.

Since we wanted to have fun,

my boyfriend and I went to San Juan,

Coordinating Subject Predicate

and we danced all night.

he is not very happy.

Say if the following sentences are:

Writing Academic English, Second Edition, by Alice

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