Sentence

Features of a sentence

Every sentence must:

• be about one idea
• make complete sense
• contain at least one noun
• contain a verb
• start with a capital letter
• end with a full stop (mostly)

We can write sentences in different tenses to tell us when something happened - the past, present or future.

Examples of simple sentences

• Mum reads a book.
• Claire plays football happily.

Types of sentences

Sentences comes in different types, they can be statements, questions and commands.

Statement

A statement is a type of simple sentence that expresses a fact or opinion. Sentences which are statements will end with a full stop.

Example statements:

• The sunset is beautiful. (opinion)
• A bird catches fish. (fact)
• I love that book. (opinion)

Question

A question is a type of simple sentence that asks the reader for an answer. Sentences which are questions will end with a question mark.

Example questions:

• How old are you?
• What colour is your hair?
• What time is it?

Command

A command is a type of simple sentence that tells someone to do something. Depending on the context a command can end in either a full stop or an exclamation mark.

Example commands:

• Feed the fish.
• Look at the dolphin jumping!
• Eat your dinner.

Sentences about two ideas

If we want to write a sentence about two different ideas we simply need to create two simple sentences and join them together using a joining word like 'and'. Both simple sentences need to contain the features of a simple sentence (above) and both ideas have to make sense on their own.

In joining one sentence to another we are building onto our first idea and be related to the first idea.

Examples:

• The sun is hot and the sky is clear.
• We walked up the hill and the view was stunning.
• Robert went to the beach and he dug a hole.