THE COMPLETE SENTENCE

Writing a complete sentence seems easy enough, but you may not realize that you don’t have one when you edit your writing if you don’t know what you are looking for.

Complete sentences need:

A subject A verb A complete thought

REVIEW: What makes a complete sentence?

What do subjects look like?

• Nouns: person, place, thing, idea (such as fear)

• Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they

Remember . . .

• A noun or string of nouns does not make a complete sentence– Ex: The boy, the girl, the dog, the cat

*Note that length doesn’t determine a complete sentence

– The noun must have a verb working with it to make a complete sentence

So if the subject needs a verb . . . What do verbs look like?

• Action words: hit, run, bike, jog• In different tenses: ran, biked, has jogged• However some verbs do not show action:

– State of being: She feels sad. Notice that she is not “feeling” something sad as an action but rather internally experiencing it (sad refers back to subject)

– To be: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been• These words can be coupled with action verbs as helping

verbs or stand by themselves• Ex of a helping verb: She is walking to the store (present

progressive tense)• Ex of a to be verb: I am happy. She is the captain of the

team.

Expletive & Imperatives

• There are a couple of exceptions to the subjects before verbs to make a complete sentence rule.– Notice the sentence you just read. – What is the verb? (are). Sometimes it is helpful when

identifying complete sentences to find you verb and then look for your subject before it. Subjects are most often in front of the verb they go with.

– BUT—What is the subject????– Is it “There”? What “are” in the sentence?– The true subject in a sentence that begins with the

word “there” comes after the verb.• This construction is called an expletive.

Wait a minute – one more exception to the standard

complete sentence!

• An imperative sentence or a command will NOT look like your typical complete sentence.

• Run! Take out the trash!– Notice what these sentences start with—VERBS! Where is the

subject?– Better yet—Who is being spoken to?– Your subject is YOU! Whomever the command is being given to

is the subject of the sentence. If that person is not identified by name, then the subject would be an understood you.

ARE YOU READY?

• Go to the links provided to test your noun and verb knowledge before going on to the next part of your study.