Sentence

A sentence is the major unit of grammar for written language. We begin a sentence with a capital letter and end it with a period or full-stop (.) or sometimes with a question mark (?) or an exclamation mark (!).

A simple sentence consists of one clause, and a complex sentence consists of more than one clause.

1. Sentence types

We divide sentences into four sentence types: (1) a Statement (2) a Question (3) an Imperative and (4) an Exclamation.

1.1. A Statement

Ex: I like ice-cream. | He didn't ask me my name.

1.2. A Question

(1) Do you like ice-cream? [see Yes-no question]
(2) Who likes ice-cream? [see Wh-question]
(3) You like this ice-cream? [see Intonation]

1.3. An Imperative

Give me your money. | Don't be afraid.

1.4. An Exclamation

What a brilliant idea! | How unfortunate it was!

A simple sentence generally has a subject and verb. We usually omit the subject in imperatives. We also often omit the subject and verb in exclamations.
Ex: How wonderful it is! → How wonderful!

2. Complex sentences

We make a complex sentence by joining clauses together by either subordination or coordination or both.

A sentence which consists of clauses linked by coordination is often called a "compound sentence".
Ex: I like ice-cream, but my wife doesn't like sweet things.

We can make a sentence as long as we like, by adding more clauses. But remember that the average length of a sentence in written English is about 17 words. If we make our sentences much longer than this, they may be difficult to understand.

I hope this article helps. If you have any question, please leave a comment below.