Semester 1

Front 1

Compound sentences

Back 1

It is made basically of two independent clauses. These clauses are joined in a relationship of coordination. Coordination simple means that the clauses have the same grammatical status. None of the clauses depends on the other.Examples:Rose washed the plates and Rebecca swept the room.You can take it or you can leave it.It is beautiful but it is too small for his size.You can see from the three sentences above that the coordinating conjunctions “and, or, but” serve as the link or coordinators of the two clauses in each instance making each clause independent of the other.

Hint 1

Components of a subject

A) An infinitive, a phrase or a clause may occur as the subject of the sentence.Example:To err is human.Being very hungry is no jokeThat you are right is obvious.B) It is possible to have more than one actual subject in all the words forming the total subject.Example: 1. Mangoes, oranges, and lemons are expensive2. My uncle, my brother-in-law and my aunt are going for tea.

Front 2

A sentence

Back 2

A sentence is a complete statement. It must consist of at least a subject and a verb to make meaning. It is not just enough to have a string of words between full stops and refer to it as a sentence; although it must start with a capital letter and end with a full stop. In linguistic terms, the sentence is defines as “the largest unit of grammatical description or analysis.Examples: He leftNo matter the beauty.Obviously, we notice how simple a statement sentence is. We have “he”, a pronoun, as subject and “left” as the verb. We also notice how meaningful it is. The opposite is true in the case of sentence Obviously, there is no verb in this sentence. The statement is therefore not meaningful, it is not a sentence.Structurally (grammatically), a sentence is divided into two main parts. Subject and predicate. The predicate tells us what the subject did, or it tells us some

Hint 2

The subject and predicate have main words. The main word in the subject is often a noun or pronoun. In the predicate the main word is a verb.Often, the subject comes before the verb. In poetry and other literary works however, this arrangement can be changed. It is possible for the poet to put the subject in another position.

Front 3

One-word sentence

Back 3

A sentence can be one word. In one –word sentence, the word is often a verb.Examples: Come Go Beat Walk Speak Usually, these words are commands. But if the word is a short answer to a previous sentence, it can be a noun or pronoun. Example: Question: Whom did you give the book?Answer: Him (I gave it to him)Question: what is your name?Answer: Yao (My na

Hint 3

Three types of sentences are identified: simple sentence, compound sentence and complex sentence.SIMPLE SENTENCEThe simple sentence consists primarily of one independent clause. The independent clause is considered the basic unit. It is said to be basic because it contains basic grammatical completeness and unity. Examples:Divine bought the house.Mensa left for London.The boy is a student.

Complex sentence :

The complex sentence is primarily made of one independent clause and one dependent clause. These two clauses are linked in relationship of dependency. That is, one of the clauses depends on the other in order to make meaning.Examples:We have to learn hard if we are going to pass the examination.Newton rode the motor bike because his brother bought it.The man drove the car while his son opened the gate.From the above three sentences, we can see that our passing the exams depends on our learning hard. Newton’s riding depends on his brother buying the bike, and the man’s driving depends on his son opening the gate. This dependency is signalled by the subordinating conjunctions if, because, and while.

Forms of sentences:

Six forms of sentences are distinguished: command, exclamation, request, wish, statement and question.COMMAND ;Keep quiet.Don’t eat the food.Take the book to the teacher.EXCLAMATION ;Hello!I have got it!That is brilliant!REQUEST ;Can I have a cup of water please?Will you please talk to your friend?Please open the door.Would you please leave now?

WISH ;May you have a pleasant journey.I would like to wish you a successful examination.I wish I could play football.If only I had money.STATEMENT :He is a student.Affum is a driver.The teacher taught a good lesson.QUESTION ;How old are you?Is this the man who came here yesterday?What is you name?