A sentence is a group of words that makes a complete sense.
eg: We often plan tour programmes for a refreshment
In the above example we can see seven words without ‘ a ‘ and it is grouped in a particular order for making a complete sense.
That means only a group of words cannot make a sense, without a particular order of those words.
So the order, otherwise known as sentence structure, is what that matters.
Before studying about the order, let’s ask some questions to the above given sentence
Our first question is ‘ who plans the tour programmes ? ‘
Of course, we know the answer, that is ‘ We ‘
That is, the action ‘ plan ‘ is done by the Do-er ‘ We ‘
The term ‘Do-er ‘ is called Subject in Grammar.
So ‘ We ‘ is the subject here.
Then our second question is ” what do we do ?”
As we know, the answer is ‘ plan ‘.
That is, ‘ plan ‘ is the action what the subject ‘we ‘ does.
In Grammar the term ‘ action ‘ is called Verb.
So the action ‘ plan ‘ is the verb here.
The third question is ” What we plan ? ”
Without any delay, we can say the answer is ‘ tour programmes ‘
That is, when we ask the question ” What ?” , we get the answer ” tour programmes”
Like this, if we get an answer, when we ask the question ” what ?’ or “whom ?”, the answer we get is called the object .
eg: I saw him ( Here, answer of “whom ?” is him)
Let’s again ask the questions and answers briefly.
1 . Who ? —- Ans. “We “ —- named as “Subject”
2. Which action ? —– Ans. “Plan” —– named as “Verb”
3. What ? ——- Ans. ” tour programmes” — named as “Object”
4. Whom ?—-Ans. “him” —-named as ” Object”
So we, now, are familiar with Subject, Verb and Object without any doubt.
# Structure.
It denotes the order of placing subject, verb and object .
Let’s bring here the first example in the topic to clear it.
- We ( S ) often plan ( V ) tour programmes ( O ) for a refreshment.
Another example,
- We (S) study (V) Grammar (O) in a simple way
Here in the two examples we can see the order that the subject is at first, then verb and finally the object.
So we can understand that the general structure or pattern of a sentence is S + V + O
# Complement
In the above two examples, we can also see a group of words, apart from subject, verb and object , that is, “for a refreshment” and ” in a simple way”
This type of group of words is known as “complement” that gives us a complete idea.
So we have studied and understood what is subject, verb, object and complement and the general pattern or structure as Subject + Verb + Object , or simply S+V+O.
# Predicate.
Here the word “Predicate“ is now strange to many of us .
Don’t worry, it is just only a part including verb, object and complement. And also it says who or what the subject ‘is’ or ‘does’
That means, Predicate is a part of a sentence that talks about the subject , or we can say the part except the subject.
eg ; John is the eldest son of Mary.
Here John is the ‘subject’ and the underlined part is the ‘predicate’.
eg; Peter has signed in an agreement with George.
Here Peter is the ‘subject’ and the underlined part is the ‘Predicate’.
So, we have studied sentence and sentence structure.
On the basis of what we have studied and understood, we can further modify the definition of sentence as noted below.
” A sentence is a group of words having a subject , verb, object, complement and also a complete meaning and a specific structure.
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