Sentences
A sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought. It begins with a capital letter and closes with a punctuation mark. The main grammatical parts of a sentence are the subject and the predicate.
Les
gendarmes arrêtent les voleurs.
(The policemen are arresting the robbers.)
Gendarmes is the subject; arrêtent les voleurs is the predicate.
Sentences are classified by types (declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative) and by number of subjects and predicates (simple sentences and compound or complex sentences).
Declarative Sentences
Imperative
Sentences
Interrogative
Sentences
Exclamatory
Sentences
Compound and Complex
Sentences
To form grammatically correct sentences, certain parts of speech (verbs, nouns, pronouns) must agree with each other in number (singular or plural) and person (first, second or third). They also agree in gender.
Votre fille est bonne
musicienne.
(Your daughter is a good musician.)
Musicienne is part of the predicate and has the same number and gender as fille, the subject of the sentence. The linking verb être (to be) is in the singular. Compare with the masculine plural form:
Ces garçons sont de
mauvais musiciens.
(These boys are poor musicians.)
The most common forms of the subject are nouns and pronouns. The predicate consists of a verb of action (or of a state of being) and any modifiers, plus any direct or indirect object (or attributes, in the case of a verb of a state of being).
Clauses
A clause consists also of a subject and a verb; some (independent) clauses can stand by themselves as sentences. Subordinate clauses, introduced by a subordinate conjunction, serve as part of a sentence but do not express a complete thought and cannot stand by themselves. They are subordinate to the main clause:
Il fait beau. (The weather is nice). [independent clause]
Quand nous sommes arrivés, il faisait
beau.
(When we arrived, the weather was beautiful.)
["when we arrived" is the subordinate clause.]
Subordinate clauses include: noun clauses, adjective clauses, and adverbial clauses.
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