Sentences are categorized in two
ways: by structure and by purpose.
Types of
Sentences by Structure
·
Compound
Sentence - “I love chocolate, and I love
eating chocolate.” Two or more independent clauses.
·
Complex Sentence – “I
love chocolate because it’s decadent.” One
independent clause and one or more dependent
clauses (italicized). Note: according
to Wikipedia, a sentence like “The dog chewed up the shoes that I just bought”
is a simple sentence, not a complex sentence, because the relative
clause “that I just
bought” simply modifies the noun without performing any other
function. I’m not sure how accurate this is, however.
·
Complex-Compound Sentence – “I
love chocolate because it’s decadent, and I love
eating chocolate because it’s delicious.” Two or
more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
Those four categories apply to normal, grammatical
sentences. However, some of our most common expressions are sentences that
don’t follow the rules — see Major and
Minor Sentences.
Note: obsessive syntacticians
(is there any other kind?) have also named more specific types of
sentences, which I’ll address when I start learning about the finer points of
writing style.
Types of
Sentences by Purpose
·
Declarative Sentence – “I love
chocolate.” Used to make a simple statement. Most sentences are declarative.
·
Interrogative Sentence – “Do you
love chocolate?” Used to ask a question. See also Rhetorical Question.
·
Imperative Sentence – “Please
buy me some chocolate.” Used for commands, with the pronoun you always
implied.
·
Conditional Sentence – “If I had
a billion dollars, I would buy a castle made of chocolate.” Used to express
what one would do if a condition were met. There are several types of
conditional sentences: the present
general (or zero condition), the future
more-vivid (or first condition), thefuture
less-vivid (or second condition), the present
contrafactual (also
sometimes called the second condition), and the past
contrafactual (or third
condition).
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