Sentence structure

The parts of a sentence are the subject, verb,

object, complement and adverbial. A statement

begins with the subject and the verb. There are

five main structures which we can use to make

a simple statement.

• SUBJECT VERB

My arms are aching.

Something happened.

 A sentence is commonly defined as "a complete unit of thought." Normally, a
sentence expresses a relationship, conveys a command, voices a question, or
describes someone or something. It begins with a capital letter and ends with a
period, question mark, or exclamation mark.
The basic parts of a sentence are the subject and the verb. The subject is usually a
noun—a word (or phrase) that names a person, place, or thing. The verb
(or predicate) usually follows the subject and identifies an action or a state of being.

• SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

( nothing ) need a rest.

Five people are moving the piano.

The subject and object can be a pronoun

(e.g. I) or a noun phrase (e.g. the piano).

 In addition to serving as subjects, nouns may also function as objects in sentences.
Instead of performing the action, as subjects usually do, objects receive the action
and usually follow the verb. See if you can identify the objects in the short
sentences below:
The girls hurled stones.
The professor swigged coffee.
Gus dropped the iPad.
The objects—stones, coffee, iPad—all answer the question what: What was hurled?
What was swigged? What was dropped?

• SUBJECT VERB COMPLEMENT

This piano is heavy.

It was a big problem.

The complement can be an adjective (e.g.

heavy) or a noun phrase (e.g. a big problem).

The complement often comes after be. It can

also come after appear, become, get, feel, look,

seem, stay or sound. For adjectives and word

order.

• SUBJECT VERB ADVERBIAL

It is on my foot.

Their house is nearby.

An adverbial can be a prepositional phrase

(e.g. on my foot) or an adverb (e.g. nearby).

• SUBJECT VERB OBJECT OBJECT

Its giving me backache.

David bought Melanie a present.

We use two objects after verbs like give and

send.