THE SIMPLE SENTENCE

440. We have been analyzing the simple sentence, which contains only words and phrases. We have found that there may enter into the simple sentence, the following elements:

  1. The simple subject.
  2. The simple predicate.
  3. The modifiers of the subject.
  4. The object of the verb.
  5. The predicate complement.
  6. The modifiers of the predicate.

This is not the order in which the elements will appear in the sentence, but this is the order of their importance. We first look for the simple subject and the simple predicate; then we can determine which words are the modifiers of the subject; then we find the object or predicate complement of the verb and the modifiers of the verb; and thus we have all of the elements which go into the construction of the simple sentence.

We may also have two nouns used as the subject or two verbs used in the predicate, connected by a co-ordinate conjunction, thus:

Here we have two proper nouns used as the subject, Marx and Engels. We have also two verbs used as the predicate, lived and worked. We call this a compound subject and compound predicate.

So in one simple sentence, that is a sentence which makes a single assertion, we may have every part of speech. For example:

In this sentence, we have a noun, verb, pronoun, adjective, adverb, conjunction and preposition—every part of speech except the interjection, which is an independent element and does not enter into the construction of the sentence.