A sentence is a group of words that conveys a complete idea and is a basic unit of grammar. It contains a subject and a verb and may be declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory. A sentence typically begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, exclamation point, or a semicolon.
The subject of a sentence is the person or thing about which something is stated. The predicate is the word or phrase that describes the subject. The verb that goes with the subject is called the object of the sentence. The object of a sentence is the thing or action that results from the subject’s actions.
Some sentences are complex, while others are simple. A simple sentence has a single independent clause, and the independent clause cannot be joined to another independent clause with a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, so). A compound sentence has one independent clause with at least one dependent clause. A complex-compound sentence has multiple independent clauses, and it is possible for these clauses to be joined with coordinating conjunctions.
Sentences can also be categorized by their function, i.e., whether they are declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. These are separate from the types of sentence structure (simple, compound, etc). A declarative sentence consists of a subject and a verb, and the subject and verb must agree with each other. For example, if the subject is a person, the verb must be singular; if the subject is an animal, the verb must be plural. The form and meaning of the sentence must also match.
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