A sentence has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
- I have a dog.
- I don’t have a pet.
- My book is red.
- Her book is blue.
- This is a cat.
- That is a rainbow.
Sentences need to have a subject (who/what the sentence is about) and a predicate (what is happening in the sentence).
- I have a dog. - ‘I’ is the subject and ‘have a dog’ is the predicate.
If the words don’t have this information then it is not a sentence.
- The bus. (no predicate so we don’t know anything about the bus.)
- Is over there. (no subject so we don’t know who or what is over there)
If we put the 2 pieces together we will get a true sentence.
- The bus is over there.
This sentence has told us who or what (the bus) and the action (is over there) which means it is a sentence.
Sentences can be long or short, interesting or boring, simple or complex.
When you write a sentence be sure to include a beginning, a middle, and an end so that everyone understands what you are saying.