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Sentence Construction in English
Simple, complex, and compound are the three varieties of sentence construc-
tion in English. The basic sentence construction in English, also known in the
grammar books as the simple sentence, is a very defined and rigid structure.
Unlike our mother tongues English does not have case markers to define the
grammatical functions of a unit of a sentence. An English sentence, hence,
always has to begin with a subject, immediately followed by a verb. At times,
if the verb is intransitive, the sentence may consist of only these two units
(‘it rains’ or ‘it snows’ or ‘all animals, even of the human species, die’ are a few
examples). If the verb so requires, the sentence acquires other such elements as
an object, a subject complement, an adjective and an adverb. Let us look at a
few examples of each of these varieties. The Glossary at the end of the book
will provide you further details about these grammatical terms.

i. Subject-verb-object
e.g., All of us need English.
Teachers help students.
Teachers explain grammar to students.
ii. Subject-verb-subject complement

e.g., Dr Kalam is the President of India.
Mr Naidu is the chief guest of the function today.
iii. Subject-verb-adjective

e.g., Hyderabad is beautiful.
English appears difficult.
Duties of a school principal seem heavy.
iv. Subject-verb-adverb
e.g., The school opens at 8 a.m.
The students study chemistry in the laboratory.
The teacher explains mathematics effectively.
Students often bunk classes.
Good written communication is marked by an abundance of such simple
sentences in all their varieties. An effective writer uses the required sen-
tence structure (s-v or s-v-o) and alternates it with the other types (s-v-adj
or s-v-adv) without sacrificing sense or meaning in any way. In fact, simple
sentences give your writing a sense of clarity and immediacy. This is the
sentence construction you should prefer in the classroom or when you are
writing the teachers’ handbook(s) or students’ workbook(s).
Your reports, reviews, or research papers, however, need complex and
compound sentences as well. A repetitive use of simple sentences alone may

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