How to Make Sentences (Complete Guide)

How to make sentences is a topic that is used often in almost any business communication. 

Grammar in English can often be strange. With so many rules for making sentences, there are almost as many exceptions to those rules. Sentences do not get more complex than “The person in this restaurant is my friend.” 

However, the same sentence can have many different meanings, depending on its structure and which part of speech it is. 

The good news is that there are no rules that you have to follow with all the structures and different parts of speech. You can structure sentences any way you want. The bad news is that we do have some tips for constructing sentences. 

There are ways to make sentences more appropriate, engaging, and easy to remember. These ways will help you structure your sentence to make it sound good and look good in the context of a conversation. 

Without further ado, Let’s dive in!

Want to make sentences? You must think of the sentence structure. Sentence structure involves how sentences are written, and their types can vary in different contexts. 

It is the proper arrangement of words, clauses, and punctuation in a sentence.

Writers must keep in mind a few key things to achieve proper sentence structure. More importantly, writers must know how to punctuate sentences and use parts of speech in the sentences. 

To achieve proper sentence structure, you must keep these seven tips in mind:

  • Keep commas close together
  • Ensure every sentence is short
  • Keep sentence structure simple and easy
  • Avoid starting a sentence with prepositions such as “between” or “in.”
  • Try not to begin a sentence with a conjunction such as “and,” “but,” “or,” “so
  • Desist from starting a sentence with an adverb such as “very,” “too,” or “already.”
  • Avoid using certain determiners such as “absolutely,” “definitely,” “so it seems 

A sentence consists of one or more complete thoughts. A sentence can be of various lengths, and the length of the sentence depends on the context.

Sentence structure is more challenging to master than grammar rules. When learning a new language, it is common for learners to make grammatical mistakes. This is because English grammar is complicated, and many standard grammar rules are exceptions.

When a word is put between two commas (also known as a double comma), it is considered a phrase, not a sentence structure. Many learners think of a sentence as a single unit and therefore attempt to connect phrases with commas to connect the phrases. 

There are two basic sentence structures: simple and complex. 

A simple sentence has a subject and a verb in the same clause. The simple structure is the most basic because it is the most straightforward sentence structure.

Examples of simple sentences include:

  • I like apples
  • Mary likes oranges

 A complex sentence has two or more clauses. The complex structure is somewhat more challenging to understand because many words and grammatical constructions take some explanation.

Examples of complex sentences include:

  • I like apples and oranges, and she enjoys berries and grapes

However, the two-sentence structures are pretty similar when it comes to writing. There is a significant similarity between the complex and simple structures. 

As a writer, when you are learning writing, it is vital to know the difference between the two sentence structures. Understanding the difference will enable you to understand how to make good sentences. 

How do you start making sentences as a beginner? One of the most important aspects at the beginning is understanding what makes a sentence “good.” 

When you start learning how to make sentences as a beginner, your sentences can be repetitive, boring, and uninteresting. This is a consequence of using the same verb many times in a row. 

Your sentence should feel smooth and natural but also be cohesive. To make your sentence into a complex sentence, you can insert a subordinate clause that clarifies what you are writing about within the sentence.

Making good sentences also involves understanding different parts of speech, such as verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, etc.

Once you have mastered the ways people use language, you’re no longer limited by the number of words you can use in a sentence. Knowing the parts of speech helps you to create sentences. 

You must know how parts of speech are represented in a language, and you should see if they are necessary or not.

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

Nouns

For example, you should know that nouns can describe people, places, or things. In the sentence “That’s his house,” the noun is “his house.”. In English, we use nouns every day to describe people, places, and things.

“The man is sick,” has the noun as “man”. If we want to create more complex sentences, we will need adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. 

Verb

Verbs are what convey actions or thoughts. The act or idea is embodied in the verb.

For example, the verb run defines one’s physical movement. Examples of a verb are break, jump, smile, and swim. “Run” and “smile” are both verbs and nouns; “run” is the act of running, and “smile” is the composition of one’s facial muscles.

Adjectives

An adjective is the class of words that describe a noun. It tells you what the noun is like or describes it. In the sentence “The man is sick,” the adjective is “sick.” Now we have a new noun for this sentence as well. 

Adjectives are the words that tell you the gender or make-up of nouns. In the sentence:

“The man is sick”

Tthe adjective is “sick.” Sick can be male or female, just like the noun “Man” is male or female. In English, adjectives, much like nouns, are used in many ways. 

Some adjectives are very simple, but others are very complicated and show much more knowledge than most people expect. Adjectives also can add more to the sentence by adding a prefix or suffix. In the sentence “My cat’s sick,” the adjective is “sick.” The suffix is “sick,” The prefix is “cat’s,”.

In the sentence “A man is sick,” the adjective is “sick.” The prefix is “man,” which means of the male sex. The suffix is “is,” which means a state of.

You can use some of the following adjectives in a sentence: “very”, “very much”, “very little”, “less”, “much”, “a lot”, “quite”, “a lot”, “pretty”, “not”, “many”, “often”, “all”, “few”, “most”, “good”, “bad”, “poor”, and “very”.

Adverb

An adverb is the class of words that tells you how to act, how to speak, or helps you to create more complex sentences. 

Taking the sentence “The man is sick,” the adverb is “sickly.” In English, verbs represent an action that is happening. In the sentence “The man is sick,” it is the verb “is sick.” 

What has sentence construction got to do with tense? 

Some tenses use a blend of these three tenses throughout a sentence- present, past, and future. In addition to these specific tenses, English grammar also has moods, possessives, prepositions, and adverbs. 

When writing a sentence, you can either make it in the present tense or write it in the past tense. 

To write a sentence in the present tense, include words in the present tense. For example:

  • “I am eating lunch”
  • “I am on the bus”
  • “I am working,”
  • “I am watching television”  

Past tense has to do with adding the preterite suffix, “-ed.”

  • “I was eating lunch”
  • “I was on the bus”
  • “I was working,”
  • “I was watching television”

The sentences above are all examples of past tense sentences. 

In addition to these two tenses, there is the simple past tense, also known as the pluperfect, or past perfect.

The preterit and the perfect are two verbs, which means that they take a direct object and a past participle. For example:

  • “I have eaten lunch.

There is the future tense, also known as the future perfect. This can be thought of as the future of the past. “I will eat lunch tomorrow is an example of the future perfect, or future tense. 

The future perfect is not a form of time but is a form of the conditional tense.

  • “I will eat lunch tomorrow”

The sentence above is a statement of future condition.

When it comes to making good sentences, everyone is an amateur. There is no set formula and no “right way.” The art of composing sentences is a personal and subjective judgment. 

While there are ways to be most successful at making your English sentences sound professional, grammatically correct, and even more effective, there is no set standard. 

So, when it comes to making good sentences, relax, don’t worry about it too much, and take a deep breath… and you’ll be fine!

Pam is an expert grammarian with years of experience teaching English, writing and ESL Grammar courses at the university level. She is enamored with all things language and fascinated with how we use words to shape our world.

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