Sentences A sentence is a group of words which makes complete sense by itself. You must put a full stop at the end of every sentence. Sometimes a sentence may end with an exclamation mark or a question mark instead of a full stop. Exercise 1 Some of the groups of words below are sentences because they make complete sense by themselves. Write out only these groups, remembering to put a full stop at the end of the sentence. 1. My chair squeaks 2. Scoring a goal 3. I like Mr Smith 4. This is nonsense 5. Litter lying on the classroom floor 6. The owner of the shop 7. She bought a new pair of shoes 8. Buying a packet of crisps 9. These jeans cost too much 10. Very tasty chips Exercise 2 Do as you did in Exercise 1. 1. Go away 2. The amazing talking dog 3. Having eaten the last biscuit 4. Please sit down 5. A large black handbag 6. Kevin opened his eyes 7. It seems that the rain will never stop 8. Because I saw him on Sunday 9. Sitting in the sun 10.I have finished Exercise 3 Pick out the groups of words from both exercises which were not sentences because they did not make sense on their own. Add your own words to them to make them into sentences.
Exercise 4 Write out the words below, making them into ten sentences by adding only full stops and capital letters. Do not start each sentence on a new line. first you must work out what you are going to write about then take a clean sheet of paper in the top right-hand corner put your name in the top left-hand corner write the date leave two lines in the middle of the next line write the title of your story you may then begin to write remember to start each new paragraph the same distance in from the margin write very neatly when you have finished check carefully what you have written Exercise 5 To say that a sentence is a group of words which makes complete sense by itself is not enough. It works well if the sentences are simple ones. Sometimes, though, a sentence has several parts, for example: The dog slept quietly in his basket while the thief was stealing the money. If we follow the rule we have used so far, we would put a full stop after ‘The dog slept’- because these words make complete sense by themselves. But if we do this we are left with the words, ‘quietly in his basket while the thief was stealing the money.’ These words do not make sense by themselves; they do not form part of a sentence and we cannot have parts of sentences left over. The only way we can make sense of these words is by adding them to the first group of words, ‘The dog slept’. So we have to add something to our first definition of a sentence. A sentence is a group of words which makes complete sense by itself- but we may have to add other groups of words which are not sentences by themselves. Some of the groups of words below are two sentences and some are only one. Write out each group, adding full stops and capital letters, to show clearly whether there is one sentence or two. Example: play that tape again it was good becomes Play that tape again. It was good. a) I cannot eat this meat it is too tough
b) She had coloured her eyelids with bright green eye-shadow c) There was a strong wind the washing was dry in under an hour d) Steve won the toss he decided he would play against the wind e) Leave me alone f) The boy waited for his friend but he never turned up g) I like bananas but not when they are green h) Do not do that it is dangerous i) The teacher was angry that Kerry had cheated and told her off j) The fish fought hard it took two and a half hours to land it k) He was over six feet tall and very strong l) Come in sit down and have a drink m) The fire burned fiercely soon the factory was nothing but a pile of rubble n) You can easily tell the difference between starlings and blackbirds starlings walk and blackbirds bounce o) Suddenly there came a loud hissing noise from the kitchen Stuart had forgotten all about the milk he was heating it had boiled over p) The thief felt a hand on his shoulder he spun round and found himself looking into the steady gaze of a large policeman Exercise 6 Write out the following, adding only full stops and capital letters. You should have five sentences when you have finished. Please fasten your seatbelts and extinguish all cigarettes we shall be landing at new york in ten minutes we are told that the weather at the airport is dry but cloudy the time in new york now is twenty three minutes past eleven I hope that you had a pleasant flight and that we shall see you again