Hello! Let's talk about sentences and word order in English.
I'm Julie Ciancio.
Let's go!
The basic idea with sentences is that they have a complete idea.
Sometimes sentences are very short.
This one has just one word: "Stop!"
Yet, it's a sentence.
It's a complete idea.
You can understand it very easily.
"He gets up early."
This is also a sentence.
It has a complete idea.
You can understand it just by reading that sentence.
Sentences can be affirmative, or positive, or negative.
"She likes reading."
This is an affirmative sentence.
"He does not like spiders."
"Does not" shows the negative.
This is a negative sentence.
"Do you like spiders?"
That's a question.
Questions are also sentences.
For example: "How old are you?"
or "What is your favorite food?"
Questions are indicated with a question mark at the end.
These are what we call open questions.
They require some kind of response:
"I am five years old."
"Pizza is my favorite food."
In English sentences usually follow the order:
subject-verb-object.
"She plays tennis." "She" is the subject.
"Plays" is the verb, and "tennis" is the object.
It receives the action of the verb "play".
What does she play? Tennis.
"He watches the baby."
The verb is "watches", so you can easily identify the subject.
The subject in English usually comes to the left of the verb,
so "he watches".
"He" is responsible for the action "watch".
And what does he watch? The baby.
"The baby" is the object of the verb "watch".
Interrogative sentences have an auxiliary verb first.
The auxiliary verb is a helping verb.
It just helps to make the question.
"Does she play tennis?"
We add "does" before the verb at the very beginning to make the question,
so "does" is the auxiliary verb.
"Does he watch the baby?"
Notice how the verb "watch"
changed its form in the previous sentence.
"He watches the baby."
This is the present tense.
"Does he watch the baby?" is still in the present tense,
but "does" is the verb that is conjugated
and "watched" stays in what we call the "base form".
Simple sentences or clauses have a subject,
a verb, and a complete thought,
so remember, at the beginning we Said:
all sentences have a complete thought.
All sentences have at least one clause.
In order to be a clause, it must have a subject and a verb.
"She waited" or "Joe waited for the train".
This is a complete thought, and it has a subject and a verb;
therefore, this sentence is a clause.
"The train was late."
We have a subject: "the train".
We have a verb -"was"-,
and this makes complete sense, so it's a complete thought.
"The train was late." This is another clause.
"Mary and Samantha took the bus."
Now we have a compound subject.
We have two people, and both of them are responsible for the verb "took",
so they -"Mary and Samantha"- form the subject of the sentence.
"Mary and Samantha took the bus."
It's a complete thought.
We have a subject and a verb, so it's a clause.
"I looked for Mary and Samantha at the bus station."
"I" is the subject. "Looked" is the verb.
Now, what did I look for?
I looked for Mary and Samantha.
That's the object.
They are receiving the action of the verb "looked".
Remember our word order -subject-verb-object- in English?
All of these clauses or sentences in this in this slide have a subject,
a verb, and a complete idea;
therefore, they are independent clauses.
They make sense on their own.
We have a group of words called coordinating conjunctions.
These coordinating conjunctions can be used to connect clauses together.
When we use them to connect clauses or sentences,
we use a comma before the coordinating conjunction.
So, we have a nice little graphic here that shows sentence, comma,
the coordinating conjunction, and then the other sentence.
Remember the comma goes before the coordinating conjunction.
You can remember the coordinating conjunctions in English
by the acronym "fanboys".
"F" stands for "for", "A" stands for "and",
"N" is "nor", "B" is "but",
"O" is "or", "Y" is "yet",
and "S" is "so".
So "fanboys" will help you to remember
the coordinating conjunctions in English.
Notice in these sentences here that we have two clauses
that are connected by a coordinating conjunction,
so, for example: "Joe waited for the train",
comma, "but the train was late."
So, notice that "Joe waited for the train" is a complete idea.
We could put a period there.
We have a subject. We have a verb.
We have a complete idea; therefore, it's a sentence,
but we can make more sophisticated sentences
by connecting it with a coordinating conjunction.
I'll let you analyze the rest of the sentences here on your own.
Notice the comma before the coordinating conjunction,
and notice that each half of the sentence has a subject,
and a verb, and a complete idea.
If you don't have a subject in one of these clauses,
then you don't use the comma.
You only use the comma if you have two clauses.
Remember a clause has a subject and a verb.
Complex sentences have an independent clause
with one or more dependent clauses.
So, so far, we've been looking at independent clauses.
Remember: independent clauses have a complete idea.
Subordinate clauses, or dependent clauses, do not have a complete idea.
These are some examples of subordinating conjunctions.
We use subordinating conjunctions to begin dependent clauses,
so words like "while", "because", "if", "whenever",
these are all subordinating conjunctions
that will begin dependent clauses.
So here are a few examples of dependent clauses:
"because Mary and Samantha arrived at the bus station before noon".
It's not a complete idea, therefore, it's not a sentence;
however, it is a clause.
We have a subject -"Mary and Samantha"-,
and we have a verb -"arrived",
but since it's not a complete idea, it's a dependent clause;
therefore, it's not a sentence.
Let's look at one more: "while he waited at the train station".
It's not a complete idea.
While he waited, what did he do?
We have a subject: "he". We have a verb: "waited",
but we don't have a complete idea;
therefore, this is a dependent clause, or a subordinate clause.
The same is true for the last example.
"After they left on the bus".
Not a complete idea, not an independent clause, not a sentence.
It's a dependent clause.
You can put sentences together with an independent clause
and a dependent clause.
In fact, the dependent clause
must have an independent clause to complete the idea.
The independent clause can go first.
In these examples, the independent clause is in bold
and the dependent clause is second.
It's not in bold.
Notice that when the independent clause comes first,
we do not put a comma before the dependent clause.
This is a very common mistake.
Many people would like to put a comma here
after "station" and before "because".
This is considered incorrect
although you might see it because a lot of people make this mistake,
so pay attention:
it's not required, and, in fact, is wrong in this case.
We can also put the dependent clause first,
so notice that the dependent clause now is in bold
and the second half of the sentence is the independent clause.
Remember the dependent clause
needs the independent clause to complete it,
to give it full meaning.
Now we use a comma, so when we start with "because",
we put a comma after the dependent clause.
We have another type of sentence in English
called the "compound-complex sentence".
We already saw compound sentences.
Remember? That's when we join two independent clauses
using a coordinating conjunction, and we saw complex sentences;
that's when we had a dependent clause and an independent clause.
So, in complex compound-complex sentences, we have both.
We have a dependent clause,
and we have two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.
In these examples here, the dependent clause is underlined.
Can you identify the independent clauses?
Notice the use of the comma before the coordinating conjunctions.
Thank you!