Understanding Basic English : Types of sentences

Hey, welcome back to another video built to polish your basic grammar skills and master your ability to speak the English language. Our previous video covered parts of speech and what exactly comprises a sentence. If you haven’t watched it yet, we will link the same in the description box below to have a look at the same. 

So, in today’s video, we are going to learn about types of sentences in the simplest manner possible with easy examples and tricks for you to remember better. 

We already know that a sentence is a group of words, which are used together, one after the other, to make some sense. 

For example;

If we take random words like –  Cat, is, this, a

The words above do not make any sense. However, if we arrange them in the grammatically correct order, the words will make sense.

Now, before we jump into the different parts of a sentence, let’s understand the basic aspects of a sentence.

A sentence consists of a subject, predicate, and object.

Confused? Don’t worry; we will explain each word in the simplest manner possible.

Subject

Who is the subject of a sentence?

The subject of a sentence is the person doing a certain action.

Let’s understand with an example.

Maya is cooking.

What is the action word here? – Cooking.

Who is cooking? – Maya

So, who is the subject? Maya is the subject.

Easy right?

Let’s understand with a few more examples. 

Rita loves dancing.

What is the action word here? – Dancing

Who is doing the action (that is, dancing) – Rita

So, who is the subject? – Rita

It is important to note that in a sentence, a subject is a person who is doing the action. It’s that easy to identify the subject. Let’s try another example.

Amit is driving the car.

Now, you tell us, who is the subject of this sentence?

If you guessed Amit, bingo! That’s absolutely right.

What was the action in the sentence? – Driving

So, who was doing this action? – Amit

Therefore, the subject of the sentence is Amit.

Predicate

Now, we know what the subject is.

Let’s take a look at another part of the sentence that is the predicate.

What is a predicate?

A predicate is a word or group of words that tells us what the subject is doing or what is happening.

Let’s see an example.

She is cooking.

What is she doing? -is cooking

Therefore, ‘is cooking’ is the predicate.

The predicate is the action that is done by the subject. It’s easy to identify the predicate.

Let’s consider another example.

Ramesh is a good boy.

What is being said about Ramesh? -Is a good boy

So, the predicate here is  – is a good boy.

Let’s try another one.

New Delhi is the capital of India.

If you guessed it is the capital of India, it’s absolutely right.

Last one, and then we will head to our next topic.

Radha loves dancing.

What is the action here? -dancing

Hence, ‘loves dancing’ is the predicate here.

That’s an end to a predicate. Let’s head to our next topic.

Object

What is an object?

An object is a part of the predicate that is the target of the action. One easy way to understand objects is to ask questions using ‘what’ or ‘who’ or ‘whom’ for the sentence.

Consider an example

Hari bought the toy.

What did Hari buy? -toy.

Therefore, ‘the toy’ is the object here. We also notice that it is part of the predicate.

Let’s see one more example.

He gave his mother flowers.

To whom did he give the flowers? -mother

Here, ‘mother’ is the object.

The last sentence is here.

The workers build the house.

Now, let’s ask the question.

What did the workers build? – house

So, ‘house’ is the object here.

There are two types of objects.

• Direct Object
• Indirect Object

Let’s begin with the direct object.

A direct object is a person or thing that is affected by the action of the subject. They answer questions that begin with ‘what’.

Let’s see some examples.

• He wrote a book.

What did he write? -book

Here, ‘book’ is the direct object.

• Raman broke the window.

Now, ask the question.

What did Raman break? -window

If your answer is the window, it is absolutely correct.

Here, the window is the direct object.

Now, let’s understand indirect objects.

What is an indirect object?

The indirect object denotes for whom or to whom the action of the sentence is being done. The question should be asked with who or whom.

Let’s see some examples.

• Ram built a house for his family.

Now, ask the question.

For whom did Ram build the house? -his family

Yes, the answer is his family is absolutely correct.

Therefore, his family is the indirect object here. 

• Puri bought him the gift.

For whom did Puri buy the gift?-him

Hence, ‘him’ is the indirect object here.

These examples definitely cleared most of our confusion. And with this, we come to the end of our first part of the video. 

Let’s begin with the next part.

Types of Sentences

Four friends are sitting together and watching a football match. It is the last minute of the game, and with the final goal, their team wins.

Ram- Hurrah! We won.

Rita- It was a great match.

Gani- Who kicked the final goal?

Ram- It was Messi.

Jen- Let’s go home.

Did you all notice something?

 All are using different types of sentences to express themselves. 

There are four types of sentences-

• DECLARATIVE SENTENCES
• INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES
• IMPERATIVE SENTENCES
• EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES

Declarative Sentences

What are Declarative Sentences?

These are used to make sentences declare statements. These end with full stops.

Here are a few examples-

• I am a girl.
• She is dancing.
• I love my country.
• Rose is a flower.

They can be either positive or negative statements.

See these sentences-

• The baby is happy. (positive statement)
• The baby is not happy. (negative statement)
• It is raining. (positive statement)
• It is not raining. (negative statement)

Interrogative sentences

What are Interrogative sentences?

These are used to ask questions. These sentences often begin with who, what, where, when, why, how, or do and end with a question mark.

See the examples below.

• What is your name?
• Where are you going?
• How are you feeling?
• Can you walk?

There are three forms of Interrogative sentences.

• Yes/No Questions

The questions that have ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as answers are yes/no questions.

Let’s take examples

• Are you sick?

Yes, I am sick.

No, I am not sick.

So, we get two answers to this question – One in positive as yes and the other in negative as no.

• Can you dance?

Yes, I can dance.

No, I can’t dance.

Hence, as the earlier examples, we see that we are getting two answers- One in positive as yes and the other in negative as no.

• Wh- Interrogatives

Wh- Interrogatives are questions asked using one of the question words such as who, what, where, when and why.

Let’s take examples

• What is your name?
• Where do you live?
• When will he arrive?
• Why are you eating this?
• Choice Questions

These types of questions have answers in the questions only.

See the examples below.

• Do you like apples?
• Do you want tea or coffee?
• Are you American?

In all the examples above, we see that we are getting options to choose.

In the first, either the person likes apples, or they don’t.

In the second example, the person wants either tea or coffee.

In the third example, either the person is American, or he is not.

That’s an end to interrogative sentences.

Let’s go for another type of sentence.

Imperative Sentences

What are Imperative Sentences?

These sentences are used to give commands, suggestions, instructions, advice or request something. These sentences usually end with a full stop, but sometimes, they can end with a note of exclamation.

Let’s see this example.

• Please stand up.

This sentence displays a request.

Consider one more example.

• Complete your homework.

This sentence is an instruction.

Let’s take a look at an imperative sentence using an exclamation mark.

• Get your hands up!

We should notice that these sentences are mostly commands or orders.

That’s an end to imperative sentences.

Let’s take a look at the last type of sentence.

Exclamatory sentences

What are Exclamatory Sentences?

These sentences express emotions and feelings such as surprise, shock, grief, happiness, anger, etc. They always end with an exclamation mark (!).

Let’s take an example

• Hurrah! We won the match.

In the above example, we see that a great sense of happiness is shown by using exclamation marks after hurrah.

Similarly, consider this example

• What a beautiful painting!

Did you notice the surprise feeling when you spoke the above sentence? Yes, that makes it an exclamatory sentence.

And with the last type of sentence, we come to the end of our topic. That’s all for today.

For better knowledge, talk to people and identify the different types of sentences that you use in the conversation.

We hope we were able to make these concepts clear and easy for you all to understand. For any doubt, you can revisit the video anytime.