– A sentence needs a capital letter at the beginning.
– A sentence needs a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point at the end.
– A sentence needs a subject.
– A sentence needs a finite verb (either a simple verb or an auxiliary, such as is, were, has, had, will, can, might, should, do or does, followed by another verb form).
– A sentence needs standard word order. In English, the regular sequence is SVO (Subject-Verb-Object), with insertions possible at several points in the sequence.
– A sentence needs an independent “core” idea, which can stand alone. This is known as a main clause or an independent clause.
Exercise: The following lines are from student essays describing vacation spots and beaches. Which ones are standard sentences in English? Which are not? For each one that is not a standard sentence, identify which requirement of a sentence it is missing. Then try to make it into a correct sentence.
1. the sun is shining.
2. They walk slowly and quietly.
3. Watching themselves make steps on the white sand.
4. You can hardly see any sand.
5. Because there are so many people and so many umbrellas.
6. You can imagine walking on the white glittering sand.
7. The feeling of cool sand running through your toes.
8. There is a big coconut tree.
9. Some leaves on the sand.
10. Is a St. Croix beach in the Virgin Islands.
11. The tree on the beach it is very big.
12. Shade from the sun some umbrellas provide.
13. On that beach, two people who are enjoying the beautiful weather.
14. The sun shining on the water.
15. The people who are sitting on the beach feel very relaxed.
