Building clear sentences
Every English sentence needs a subject and a verb. Learn the basic patterns and how to join two ideas correctly.
বাংলায় সারাংশ (Bangla summary)
প্রতিটি বাক্যে কর্তা ও ক্রিয়া লাগে। মৌলিক গঠন এবং দুটি ধারণা সঠিকভাবে যুক্ত করার নিয়ম শিখুন।
By the end of this lesson you can
- Find the subject and main verb in a sentence
- Use the five basic sentence patterns
- Join two complete ideas without a comma splice
Subject + verb is the core
A complete English sentence has at least a subject (who or what) and a finite verb (what they do or are). "Prices rose." is complete. "Because prices rose." is not: it is only part of a sentence.
Most sentences follow one of five patterns: subject + verb (Prices rose), subject + verb + object (The city built a bridge), subject + verb + complement (The plan was expensive), subject + verb + object + object (The council gave residents a choice), and subject + verb + object + complement (Many people find the city noisy).
Joining two ideas
A comma alone cannot join two complete sentences. "Public transport is cheap, many people still drive." is a comma splice, a very common error in IELTS Writing.
Fix it in one of three ways: a full stop ("…cheap. Many people…"), a linking word ("…cheap, but many people…"), or a subordinating word ("Although public transport is cheap, many people still drive.").
From fragment to sentence
Fragment: Because the population is growing.
Sentence: Because the population is growing, cities need more housing.
Comma splice: Housing is expensive, young people live with their parents.
Fixed: Housing is expensive, so many young people live with their parents.
Each fixed version has a main clause with its own subject and verb.
Guided practice
Is each item a complete, correct sentence?
Practise on your own
Choose the best correction.
Mini test
Check what you learned. Wrong answers go to your mistake notebook for revision.