Blog about English
Frequent learner mistakes involving sentence structure.
Identify the main subject, verb, object, complement, and adverbial before analyzing a sentence structure.
For example, She became a doctor contains a subject, linking verb, and subject complement, while She opened the door contains a subject, verb, and direct object.
An object and a complement have different grammatical functions even when both follow a verb.
Compare She became a doctor, where a doctor is a subject complement, with She met a doctor, where a doctor is a direct object.
Not every verb takes a direct object because intransitive and linking verbs have different patterns.
For example, The baby slept is complete, while She opened requires an object in the intended transitive use.
The subject and object have different grammatical roles and should not be identified merely by whether they are nouns or pronouns.
For example, In John called Mary, John is the subject and Mary is the object.
Ordinary English statements normally place the subject before the finite verb and the direct object after the verb.
For example, She bought a car, not She a car bought in normal neutral English.
Auxiliary inversion used in questions should not normally be transferred to ordinary statements.
For example, He works here is correct, while Works he here is not standard neutral English.
Present and past simple questions and negatives normally require do, does, or did when no other auxiliary is present.
For example, Does she work here? and She does not work here.
Do-support is not normally used with be or modal verbs.
Use Is she ready? and Can she swim?, not Does she be ready? or Does she can swim?
Subject questions normally do not use auxiliary inversion.
For example, Who called you? is correct, not Who did call you? unless did is deliberately emphatic.
Object questions normally use auxiliary inversion or do-support when required.
For example, Who did you call? and What did she buy?
A sentence with a compound subject or predicate can still be simple because it may contain only one independent clause.
For example, Tom and Sarah work here is simple, while Tom works here and Sarah works there is compound.
Compound sentences contain coordinated independent clauses, while complex sentences contain an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
For example, I was tired, so I went home is compound, while Because I was tired, I went home is complex.
A dependent clause or incomplete phrase should not normally be used as an independent sentence.
For example, Because I was tired is a fragment when it is intended to stand alone.
Two independent clauses must be correctly separated or joined rather than simply placed next to each other.
For example, I was tired. I went home is correct, while I was tired I went home is a run-on.
Two independent clauses should not normally be joined by a comma alone.
For example, I was tired, so I went home is correct, while I was tired, I went home is a comma splice.
A coordinating conjunction should express a relationship appropriate to the clauses or elements being joined.
For example, but is appropriate for contrast, while so commonly expresses result.
A subordinate clause must be attached to an appropriate main clause and should express a clear logical relationship.
For example, Because it was raining, we stayed home is complete, while Because it was raining is not.
Coordinated elements should normally have matching grammatical structures when they perform the same function.
For example, She likes reading, writing, and travelling is parallel, while She likes reading, to write, and travelling is poorly balanced.
Adverbs should be placed where their intended grammatical and semantic scope is clear.
For example, She often works late is natural, while placing an adverb incorrectly can change emphasis or make the sentence difficult to interpret.
The position of only can change which element it modifies and therefore change the meaning.
Compare Only John saw Mary with John only saw Mary.
When several adverbials occur together, their order should be chosen according to normal English patterns and communicative emphasis.
A neutral sequence often places manner before place and time, as in She worked quietly in the office all day.
Separable phrasal verbs allow some variation with noun objects but normally require pronoun objects to occur before the particle.
For example, turn off the light, turn the light off, but turn it off.
Embedded and indirect questions normally use statement word order rather than direct-question inversion.
For example, Do you know where she lives? not Do you know where does she live?
Coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions create different grammatical relationships between clauses.
Compare She was tired, so she went home with Because she was tired, she went home.
Sentence connectors such as however and therefore should not be punctuated as though they were ordinary coordinating conjunctions.
For example, The plan was expensive; however, we approved it.
However and but both express contrast but have different grammatical behavior.
For example, The plan was expensive, but we approved it, versus The plan was expensive; however, we approved it.
Therefore and so can both express result, but they differ in grammatical behavior and register.
For example, It was late, so we left and It was late; therefore, we left.
Moving an element to the front of a sentence does not automatically require subject-auxiliary inversion.
For example, Yesterday, I went home uses fronting without inversion, while Never have I seen this uses inversion.
Inversion should occur only in constructions that license it and should use the appropriate auxiliary and subject order.
For example, Never have I seen such a thing is grammatical, but ordinary fronted expressions do not automatically trigger inversion.
A grammatically possible sentence may still be difficult to understand if it contains too many unnecessary clauses or embeddings.
Break long sentences into smaller units when the relationships between ideas become difficult to follow.
Sentence structure should make clear which words and phrases modify or relate to each other.
Poor placement of modifiers, pronouns, or clauses can create multiple possible interpretations.
A modifier should clearly refer to the noun or clause it logically describes.
For example, Walking down the street, I saw the church is clear, while Walking down the street, the church appeared can create a dangling-modifier interpretation.
Some verbs require complements or objects to form a complete clause in a particular meaning.
For example, She put the keys requires a place complement in the intended sense, so She put the keys is incomplete in that use.
Do not add objects or complements that the verb or construction does not require or support.
For example, The baby slept is complete, and adding an unnecessary direct object can make the structure ungrammatical.
Accurate sentence structure requires control of word order, clause boundaries, sentence types, coordination, subordination, complements, adverbials, ellipsis, substitution, connectors, and emphasis.
Before correcting a sentence, identify its clauses and grammatical functions first, then determine whether the problem concerns structure, word order, punctuation, or information organization.