To understand sentence structures in the English language, you must first have a general understanding of the types of words that are used to make sentences.

Noun – a person, place or thing

Singular examples (one): brother, home, sock, mouse
Plural examples (more than one): brothers, homes, socks, mice

Verb – an action

Examples: jump, sit, talk, have

Adjective – describes a noun

Examples: colorful shirt, funny story, tall boy

Adverb – describes other words (not nouns)

Examples: jumped yesterday, talks fast, sings loud, very pretty, luckily for us

Subject – the noun or nouns that perform the action

Example: The dog jumped.

The subject of this sentence is the noun, dog, because it is performing the action of jumping.

Example: Dogs and cats sleep.

The subjects of this sentence are the nouns, dogs and cats. This is called a compound subject because there is more than one subject performing the same action.

Object – the noun or nouns that receive the action

Example: The child drank milk.

The object of this sentence is the noun, milk, because the child is drinking the milk. The milk is receiving the action.

Example: She is eating bread and cheese.

The objects of this sentence are the nouns, bread and cheese. The subject is eating them both.

Five basic sentence structures

There are five basic sentence structures in the English language.

1. Subject-Verb

Examples:

• The boy plays.
• Jack eats.
• Sara sits.

2. Subject-Verb-Object

Examples:

• The girl pets the cat.
• I love apples.
• Bill kicks the ball.

3. Subject-Verb-Adjective

Examples:

• Lisa is pretty.
• They are nice.
• I am sad.

4. Subject-Verb-Adverb

Examples:

• Maria laughs loudly.
• The dog jumps high.
• Apples are everywhere.

5. Subject-Verb-Noun

Examples:

• I am the teacher.
• Jon is a carpenter.
• The boy is a student.