General English Level 3 V 3
UNIT 04 Money matters TOPIC 03 From rags to riches
LANGUAGE FOCUS 03 What's in a sentence? Part 1
Learn how to make a sentence.

1. Subject, verb, object

The magazine article about Emily Briggs says:
Her parents owned a restaurant … she met and married Barry Briggs .
They had a small guesthouse … Emily needed a change ... She sold clothes …
Emily remembered the people … The Clothes Line bought natural fabrics …
She has won many awards … She supports many g roups.

A sentence is a group of words that has meaning.

1 Every sentence must have a subject . The subject is the person or thing that the rest of the sentence is about, for example,
Her parents owned a restaurant. (The sentence is about her parents.)

2 Every sentence must have a verb . The verb tells us what the subject does, has or is, for example,
Her parents owned a restaurant. (The verb tells what her parents did.)

3 Most sentences have an object . The object is the person or thing that has something done to it by the subject and verb, for example,
Her parents owned a restaurant . (The object tells us what her parents owned.)

The basic sentence in English has subject + verb + object . Most sentences are more complex than this.

SUBJECT
VERB
OBJECT
I needed
sold
loved
bought
washed 		the clothes.
the car.
the apples.
You
He
She
We
They

Examples

Tim's family owned a hotel.
The children had a good education.
Barry married Emily.
Frieda sold vegetables.
He travelled the world.

2. Prepositional phrases

The magazine article says:
Emily was born in 1948 and grew up in a small town … Her parents owned a restaurant in the town … The children also worked in the restaurant ..After she finished her nurse's training she worked in a large city hospital for several years … Emily is now one of the richest women in the world …

In 1948, in a small town, for several years are prepositional phrases. A prepositional phrase is a group of words which gives extra information about the subject, verb and object. It tells us about when, where, how and why something happened.

Sometimes we can use more than one phrase in a sentence, for example,

After she finished her nurse's training she worked in a large city hospital for several years .

I
He
She
You
We
They 		got married
started school 		in 1953.
after the holidays.
worked
stayed
studied
lived 		in a large city.
for a long time.

Examples

Sam was born in 1927 and died in 1999 .
Do you live in a house or in an apartment ?
Jill went to university for five years .
James rode to the shops on his bicycle .
They went to the movies on Saturday .

Now go to 04 LANGUAGE FOCUS What's in a sentence? Part 1 - task.