Sentence and its types

Read the following passage :
Ashraf is a student. He is attentive to his studies. He obeys his parents and teachers. His father is a teacher. Ashraf wants to be a doctor. He has one brother and one sister. They are also students. His mother is a housewife. She is very careful of her children.
Questions:

1.  Is it a meaningful passage?
2.  Does each group of words give a complete meaning?
3.  “Ashraf is a student” – is it a group of words?

This group of words “Ashraf is a student” is giving a complete idea or meaning. Here it is a sentence. Other groups of words also express meaning. So they are also sentences.
Let’s know what sentence is:
A sentence is a group of words giving a complete sense or meaning. Remember that the words you say or write cannot make a sentence if they do not express your idea or thought completely.
Sentence is of five kinds according to its meaning:
Assertive Sentence:It expresses a simple statement which may be affirmative or negative:He is an honest man.
He is not an honest man.
Interrogative Sentence:It denotes a question that may be affirmative or negative:

• Is he an honest man? Is he not an honest man?

Imperative Sentence:It expresses order, command, request, advice etc. which may be affirmative or negative :
Read your lessons.

1. Never tell a lie.

Note: Imperative sentence may begin with ‘Let’.

1. Let us learn English.
2. Let him do the work.

Optative Sentence:It expresses wish or desire or blessing:

1. May you live long.
2. Long live our country.
3. May Allah help you.

Exclamatory Sentence:It indicates sudden expression of emotion or strong feelings.
What a beautiful flower it is!

• Alas! He is dead.
• Hurrah! We have won the game.

Parts of a Sentence

1. Study the following sentences:

• Soldiers fight.
• Our soldiers fight hard battles
• Our brave soldiers fought in the War of Independence.
• The war of 1971 brought our freedom.

In the above sentences, the bold portion of the sentences led by ‘nouns’ play the role of Subject and the rest part of the sentences including the finite verb play the role of Predicates. If we get an answer by asking the main verb ‘a’ question with ‘who’ or ‘what’ the answer is the Subject of the sentence. If the answer is in one word, it is subject as in sentence. (a) If the answer is in more than one word as in sentences (b) (c) and (d) They are termed as subject group.
In the sentences (a), (b), (c) and (d), something is said under the leadership of the verb. If the answer is in one word as in (a), it is Predicate and if the answer is in more than one word as in (b), (c) and (d) sentences  they are predicate group.

Thus a sentence is a group of words having a subject and a predicate. A word or a group of words denoting a person or a thing spoken about in a sentence is called its subject. Again, a word or a group of words which says something about the subject of a sentence is called its predicate.

• Sentence
• Subject
• Predicate

Some examples:

• Subject
• Predicate

1. Birds fly.
2. Birds fly in the sky
3. Some birds don’t fly in the sky.
4. Good boys are always punctual.
5. The little child is sleeping
6. To err is human.
7. Our class captain is a brilliant student.
8. It is terrible (terrible!)
9. You have done well (well done!).
10. You love your enemies.
11. God may have mercy on su (mercy on us).

Sentence is of three types according to its form and structure. They are:

• a) Simple Sentence
• b) Complex Sentence
• c) Compound Sentence