Introduction

What if we were to tell you that, in this entire series of lessons about sentence construction, we've only looked at 1 type of sentence?

Crazy! I mean, look at all this stuff we've covered!

We've seen how you can combine different real-world elements together in different ways:

Griphook jumped down from his shoulders.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows(2007)

In cold winters the Queen does revert to knitted woollen hose for warmth.

Shakespeare's London on 5 Groats a Day(2009)

We've seen how you can combine multiple sentences together with connectors to create different relationships:

He tapped his own life force because he wanted me dead.

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man(1986)

I could see he was alive even though he made no sign or movement.

Unbelievable!(1995)

We've seen how sentences are made up of clauses, and how clauses can be layered up inside one another to make more complex meaning:

Snippet

Bod heard Scarlett choking back a scream.

The Graveyard Book(2010)

The sounds of night aren't really what's keeping me from Burke and Wills, though.

That Eye, the Sky(1986)

The sounds of night aren't really what's keeping me from Burke and Wills, though.

That Eye, the Sky(1986)

The sounds of night aren't really what's keeping me from Burke and Wills, though.

That Eye, the Sky(1986)

And yet here we are saying we've only shown you 1 type of sentence!

But don't panic. Those solid foundations we've built looking at 1 type of sentence apply just the same to the 3 (and a half) other types, with only a couple of tweaks.

We'll touch on a bit of that grammar stuff (just to show where it's different from what we've covered in other lessons), but the main focus of this lesson is the function of different sentence types. In other words, what is the writer—or character—trying to achieve by using sentences like:

It was a long drive home.

Wonder(2012)

'What's wrong?'

Burning for Revenge(1993)

Don't fight these men.

The Golden Compass(1995)

Oh, Auntie Sponge!

James and the Giant Peach(1961)

Then complete silence.

Burning for Revenge(1993)

The first snippet: It was a long drive home.

We'll start the lesson by looking at each type individually. Then we'll take a look at how different sentence types can work together for even more effects!

This lesson is taking a more zoomed out perspective than the other sentence construction lessons, so it's not essential to have done the other lessons in the series before this one. That being said, we will assume that you are comfortable writing sentences that include different elements ('things', 'people', 'actions', 'qualities', 'places', 'times'). We also think you will ge more out of this lesson if you understand the structure of clauses ('subjects', 'verb groups', 'complements' and 'modifiers').

Four and a half types of sentence