Glossary

sentence

Subject: 

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  • English Home Language

a group of words that has at least a subject and a verb and can stand alone, e.g. Birds fly. In a simple sentence, everything except the subject, is classed as the predicate. This may include a direct object and/or an indirect object. E.g. in the sentence John (subject) sent (verb) her (indirect object) the book (direct object), sent her the book is the predicate.

There are four types of sentences (see sentence types). Sentences can also be classified according to the position of the main clause in the sentence (see sentence arrangement) and purpose and structure (see sentence classification).