In writing, simple sentences play very important roles by adding variety to paragraphs, and improving the readability of a piece of writing. This brings us to the study of simple sentences in English.
What are Simple Sentences?
Simple sentences are sentences that express a single idea. Before diving deep into simple sentences, let us first of all, look briefly into sentences.
Sentences are grammatical structures at the top of the grammatical rankscale. That is, they are the largest grammatical units in English, and the first in descending order followed by clauses, phrases, words, and morphemes. They are known to contain finite verbs, and express complete thoughts ending with full stops.
A simple sentence is a type of sentence by structure: sentences are classified based on their structures and functions, that contains only one proposition—idea. Take for instance:
The rich lawyer is my good friend.
The example above is an example of a simple sentence because it contains only one idea, which is: a description of the relationship between the speaker and, "the rich lawyer", which is that they are, "good friends". Nothing more and nothing less. The sentence is straight to the point and does not give information about so many different things, rather it expresses a single main idea which is why it is regarded as a simple sentence.
Forming Simple Sentences
To be able to unmistakably identify simple sentences in paragraphs or writings, you need to look out for a number of features which they possess. Simple sentences contain: a subject and a finite verb. These are key features which a grammatical structure must possess for us to identify it as a simple sentence. The other possible elements are optional because we can do without them in forming simple sentences. Take for instance:
They swept.
The example above is a simple sentence, regardless of how short it appears, and this is because it contains a subject and a finite verb. The subject is: "they", and the finite verb is: "swept". It is also important to note that simple sentences compulsorily end in three specific punctuation marks, depending on their functions which are: full stops or periods (.), question marks (?), and exclamation marks (!).
We use full stops for declarative simple sentences, question marks for interrogative simple sentences, and exclamation marks for imperative and exclamatory simple sentences. The example above is a declarative simple sentence because it ends with a full stop. Since functions of sentences are not our concern today, I will leave them for another day.
Now let us look at simple sentences with optional or additional elements. Take for instance:
The students played football at the national stadium yesterday.
You can observe that this new sentence is much longer than the previous one we dealt with, and that is because this simple sentence contains more descriptions but like every other simple sentence, it expresses a single idea which is that students participated in sporting activities.
The subject of the sentence is: "The students", the finite verb is: "played", the object of the verb is: "football", the prepositional phrase is: "at the national stadium", and the adverb is: "yesterday". All these elements were put together in forming the simple sentence in order to make its proposition more detailed and clearer to the addressed.
Formula for Forming Simple Sentences
As a rule of thumb, you can always refer back to this formula if you face difficulties in forming or identifying simple sentences. The formula is: subject + finite verb + other elements + a punctuation, where the punctuation comes last and is determined by the function of the sentence.
Simple Sentences with Embedded Clauses
We have already established that simple sentences often contain additional elements, one of such additional elements is embedded clauses. Embedded clauses are dependent clauses that are inserted into larger grammatical structures like simple sentences. Take for instance:
This book is what I wanted for my birthday.
The example above gives you a visual presentation of what a simple sentence with an embedded clause looks like. The embedded clause in the sentence is: "what I wanted for my birthday". This embedded clause is a dependent clause—more specifically, an adjective clause, and we know this because of its function—which is, describing the type of book the speaker is making reference to and also because it comes right after a linking verb.
Linking verbs are verbs that connect subjects of sentences with their complements. The purpose of embedded clauses in simple sentences, is to add more detail and information to them. If you are very observant, you would notice that the main idea of the sentence did not change with the inclusion of the embedded clause, which shows that embedded clauses only add extra information to simple sentences.
The placement of embedded clauses in simple sentences is not limited to the final position. As a matter of fact, they can also appear at the initial position of simple sentences. Take for instance:
What I wanted for my birthday is this book.
Did you notice how I was able to flip the first simple sentence into another variety? Now the embedded clause is at the initial position acting as the subject of the sentence: "What I wanted for my birthday". The good thing about this change is that, now we have a little bit more idea about the subject, even though it is not very specific.
So whenever we have embedded clauses in simple sentences, they tend to assume various functions either as adjectives, or complements describing the quality of the subject, or acting as the subject of the sentence themselves.
Simple sentences are sentences that are expressive of a single idea. They are made up of: a subject and a finite verb compulsorily, but can accommodate extra elements like objects, prepositional phrases, adverbs, embedded clauses, etc.,. Understanding simple sentences will better inform you on how to use them effectively in writing.
Read more:
- Complete Rules of Concord in English: An Extensive Guide
- Adjective Clauses in English: Understanding How to Describe with Clauses
- Common Nouns in English Uncovered