Subjects

The subject of a sentence is a noun, a person, place, thing, idea, or feeling.  The subject often, but not always, comes at the beginning of the sentence.  The subject can be more than one noun.

The subject is always performing an action, doing something, being something, or feeling something.

• Harry and Sally got married.
• Love triumphs.
• Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Verbs

Verbs are action words.  Run and jump are verbs.  Some actions are more subtle.  Stay and wait are verbs.  Even to be is a verb.  Every sentence has at least one verb.  There can be more than one.

A sentence can consist of nothing but a subject and a verb.

• I run.
• You waited.

Sometimes, two verbs together describe one action.

• We were jogging.
• You are reading.

If you are giving a command, you can even leave out the subject.  The following examples are complete sentences.  The subject is "you."  The subject is implied.

• Stop!
• Run!

Objects

A sentence can have more than one noun.  While a subject performs an action, an object is a noun that has action performed on it.  The object usually comes after the verb.

The following examples have a subject, then a verb, then an object.

• I ate dinner.
• Dave wrote a letter.
• The trumpet player played jazz.

Modifiers

Another very common sentence element is modifiers.  Modifiers use adjectives or adverbs to describe, define, limit, or modify nouns or verbs.  A modifier can be a single word or a phrase.

• I ate dinner in the dark.
• Dave almost wrote a letter to his mother.
• The fat trumpet player played slow jazz.

Verbs

Verbs describe actions (eat, dance) or states of being (am, remain).  Every sentence contains at least one verb.

Nouns

A noun is a person, place, thing, idea, or feeling.  Every sentence has a subject, which is a noun.

Pronouns

Pronouns replace nouns in a sentence to avoid repetition.  Examples include she, it, and them.  Pronouns can be possessive (mine, ours) or interrogative (who, what).

Adjectives

Adjectives describe or modify nouns.  Big, old, hungry, blue, and vague are adjectives.  Adjectives can be possessive (my cat), demonstrative (that cat), interrogative (which cat?), or indefinite (some cats).

Adverbs

Adverbs modify or describe verbs (he ran quickly), adjectives (the sun was very bright), or other adverbs (he ran fairly quickly).

Prepositions

Prepositions link nouns, pronouns, and phrases to the rest of the sentence. The preposition usually indicates a relationship in time (I swept the stairs before lunch), space (my socks are under the bed), or logic (there is no business like show business).

Conjunctions

Conjunctions link words (I like jam and bread), phrases (do you want to wash the dishes or take out the garbage), and clauses (dinner is ready, so we should go in).

Interjections

Interjections are words or short phrases added to a sentence to convey emotion.  They are often followed by an exclamation mark. Interjections are informal.

Wow!  This is great!
Hey, come on.

Articles

Articles introduce nouns.  Common articles are the, a, and an.

Gerunds

A gerund is a verb form that functions as a noun.  Gerunds always end in “ing,” although not every verb ending in “ing” is a gerund.  The verb is a gerund if it is acting as a noun.

I am running - regular verb
Running is good for you - gerund



 

Subordinate Clauses

Run-on Sentences

Coordinating Conjunctions

• 1.Use of the Dangling Participle

  This is a common mistake. The dangling participle or misplaced modifier can change the meaning of a sentence entirely. Check out these examples:
  A: After falling from the tree, my uncle picked up the apple.
  B: My uncle picked up the apple after it fell from the tree.
  In example A, the dangling participle makes it seem as if the uncle fell from the tree. Example B shows the proper position of the modifier, which describes that the apple fell from the tree.

• 2.Confused Use of Homophones

  Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled and used differently. Examples of commonly misused homophones are the words “its” and “it’s”. See the following examples:
  A: I put the laptop back in it’s case.
  B: I put the laptop back in its case.
  Example A uses “it’s”, the contracted form of “it is”. In effect it says, “I put the laptop back in [it is] case”, which is totally wrong. Dropping the apostrophe makes the sentence correct, as in example B.

• 3.Using a Non-Parallel Sentence Structure When Giving Lists

  A: She likes taking long walks, baking cakes, and books.
  B: She likes taking long walks, baking cakes, and reading books.
  Use parallel sentence structure when you are enumerating something. Example A shows a non-parallel sentence structure. Example B shows a correct parallel sentence structure wherein all the items in the list begin in the ‘-ing’ form: taking, baking, reading.

• 1. Indicating the Possessive Form of Nouns

  The apostrophe is used when writing the possessive form of nouns. Examples of these are: Mary’s house, Ray’s painting, and Agnes’ garden. The apostrophe in these examples indicates ownership; the house belongs to Mary, the painting to Ray, and the garden to Agnes.

• 2. In Place of Omitted Letters in Contractions

  Contractions are words that have a letter or some letters omitted, oftentimes when in the act of combining two words together. Examples of these are: can’t, haven’t, it’s, who’s, and I’m. These contractions stand for: cannot, have not, it is, who is, and I am, respectively. Note that the apostrophes in these examples were placed where the omitted letters used to be.

• 3. When Not to Use an Apostrophe

  The apostrophe is never to be used in possessive pronouns. Therefore, it is wrong to write possessive pronouns this way: their’s, her’s, it’s, your’s. The correct way of writing these pronouns is: theirs, hers, its, and yours, respectively.

Also, the apostrophe should not be used when writing plural nouns, such as in: market share’s, table’s and chair’s, book’s for sale. These should be correctly written as: market shares, tables and chairs, and books for sale, respectively.

You can remedy your apostrophe errors by consulting the WhiteSmoke online punctuation checker or the full desktop application, which features an English punctuation checker. Remember these three tips, apply them, and use a punctuation checker to polish your work, and you’ll be good to go.