Do you want to know what the types of sentences are? Do you also want to know what the different sentence structures are? Read this blog post.
A couple of years ago, I had one of my younger students (grade 4, if I remember correctly) do a story prompt.
She took roughly 30 minutes to write her story. When she was finished, she called me over to let me know she was done so that I could mark it.
As I read her story, I noticed that she only used one type of sentence.
I thought to myself, “Does she know the other types of sentences? Does she know the different sentence structures?”
So, after I finished reading and marking her story, I handed it back to her and told her to look it over.
When I noticed she was done, I walked over to her and asked her if she had learned the different types and structures of sentences.
She answered, “No.”
So, I went over to a whiteboard and proceeded to explain them to her.
What Are the Different Sentence Types?
Here’s what I taught her:
When it comes to sentence types, there are 4:
- Declarative (or Statement)
- Interrogative (or Question)
- Imperative (or Command)
- Exclamatory
A declarative sentence is a statement about something.
An example of one would be:
“I have to go to the store today.”
An interrogative sentence is a question.
An example of one would be:
“Why did you forget to buy the sauce?”
An imperative sentence is a command.
An example of one would be:
“Go back to the store and buy me the sauce.”
An exclamatory sentence is a sentence showing excitement.
An example would be:
“Yay! You got me the sauce!”
The sentence types are pretty easy to understand and use. It’s straightforward. But when it comes to the different types of sentence structures, it can be a little bit more confusing.
What are the Different Sentence Structures?
The 4 types of sentence structures are:
- Simple
- Compound
- Complex
- Compound-Complex
Simple sentences are exactly what they sound like -simple. It has one independent clause and that’s it (if you don’t remember what clauses are, click here to read this blog post, which explains them).
Here’s an example:
“Bob went to work.”
Compound sentences are, essentially, two simple sentences that are connected by a coordinating conjunction (words such as: and, but, or).
They are two independent clauses that are linked together by a connector word.
Here’s an example:
“Bob went to work and he got in trouble.”
Complex sentences are sentences composed of an independent clause and a dependent clause. The two clauses are connected by a comma.
Additionally, they often times start with a subordinate conjunction.
Some examples of these words are: although, since, whenever, while and however.
Here’s an example:
“Since Bob got in trouble at work, he felt sad.”
A compound-complex sentence is a sentence that has both a compound sentence and a complex sentence connected together in holy matrimony.
Here’s an example:
“Although Bob was sad, he was still able to finish his work and his manager forgave him for the earlier mistake.”
Importance of Varying Sentence Types and Sentence Structures
After I explained this to her, I told her why it’s important to vary the types of sentences and structures in her writing.
I said that when sentences are varied, the paragraph is more enjoyable to read. It’s also easier to read because it won’t sound choppy.
It will flow better and will make your writing, in a way, more poetic.
This is also the reason why you need to understand the sentence types and structures and how to use them in your writing.
By doing so, your stories and essays will sound a lot better.
Final Thoughts
Knowing the sentence types, sentence structures, and how to use them in your writing is important because they’ll help you write cleaner, easier-to-read material.
So, if you want to become a better writer, you have to learn each ones’ structure and how to combine them in your writing.
The best way to learn them, I find, is through grammar and writing workbooks, which you can find at my store here.