Yours for the Revolution,
THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.
SENTENCE BUILDING
400. Every expression of a complete thought is a sentence. A sentence is the unit in language. Words are the material out of which we build our sentences, so we have been studying the various parts of speech that are used in sentence building. Now we are ready to use these parts of speech in the building of sentences. We have found that there are eight parts of speech, though the interjection, which is termed the eighth part of speech, is not in reality a part of the sentence; but is a complete, independent construction. So in your sentences all of the many hundreds of words which we use can be grouped into seven divisions; nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions.
401. You remember in our first lesson we found that there were just three kinds of sentences. The assertive, the interrogative and the imperative; or in other words, sentences which state a fact, ask a question or give a command. We also found that these three kinds of sentences could all be expressed in exclamatory form.
THREE KINDS OF SENTENCES
- Assertive. Makes a statement.
- Interrogative. Asks a question.
- Imperative. Gives a command.
- Assertive sentence; I remember the day.
- Interrogative sentence; Do you not remember the day?
- Imperative sentence; Remember the day.
In Exclamatory Form
- Assertive; Nonsense! I remember the day.
- Interrogative; What! Do you not remember the day?
- Imperative; Oh come! Remember the day.