GRAMMAR MINI LESSON

Is this a sentence?

A sentence has a subject and a verb (a doer and an action)

He kicked.She ate.We kissed.They laughed.

The shortest sentence in the Bible:“Jesus wept.”

A complete sentence is an INDEPENDENT CLAUSE. It can stand on its own.

Do you see the subject? The verb?

My cat has fleas.

I love fast cars.

Rain makes me sleepy.

What happens when you stick 2 independent clauses together? It’s a

RUN-ON.

INCORRECT: I hate her cat there is always cat hair in the food.

INCORRECT: One time she made a pot roast long white hairs were stuck to it our dinner was wearing a mustache.

But how do you fix a run-on sentence?

There are many ways to correct a run-on sentence!

1. Make 2 sentences: I hate her cat. There is always cat hair in the food.

2. Add a comma and a coordinating conjunction (a FANBOY): I hate her cat, for there is always cat hair in the food.

NOTE: FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)

And other ways . . .

4. Add a heavyweight connector: I hate her cat because there is always cat hair in the food.

5. Separate with a semi-colon: I hate her cat; there is always cat hair in the food.

Having problems with a sentence?

Hints:

1) Make sure you have a sentence.

2) Put the subject and main verb at the beginning of the sentence for a strong tone. If you struggle with sentence structure, keeping the subject and main verb together is important for you.