Use learning in a sentence
Learning In A Sentence - EXAMPLE-SENTENCES
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A child starts learning several things on his own without anybody telling him about them.
He does not make a show of his learning.
Education is the act of learning things around us.
I am learning computer in my school and have learnt drawing and typing on computer.
The hunger for learning should never be satisfied.
Examinations are a part of the learning process.
Learning makes a man successful, kind and polite.
Today’s kids are learning their attitudes and values more from television and movies than from any other source.
What is the good of learning if in the process of living we are destroying ourselves?
He is a man of vast learning.
Teaching aids, besides providing learning experiences, also nurture child’s creative potentialities.
He is learning how to swim.
When you realize that you know very little then you are fit for learning.
Don’t forsake a new learning opportunity because of pride.
My five-year-old daughter is learning multiplication tables in her class these days.
Library is a storehouse of learning.
Have you ever seen a baby learning to walk?
He considers learning as a Herculean task.
I am learning the piano.
He was highly regarded for his wisdom and learning.
He is very humane.
I like learning languages.
A lot of people are learning English nowadays.
Are the boys learning their lesson ?
I am learning a new poem.
He is bent on learning driving.
The students are learning their lessons.
He was learning piano.
I am learning French.
I am learning English.
How long have you been learning Hindi?
Keep on learning your lessons regularly because practice makes a man perfect.
I am learning to write commercial letters.
She is learning French.
He is learning singing.
A load of learning lumbering in his head.
The boys are not learning their lesson.
I am learning my lesson.
Why were you not learning the lesson ?
Is he learning his lesson ?
I am learning to swim.
He is busy in learning his lesson.
Social learning is as important as academic learning.
I have been learning German off and on for some time past.
I am learning my lesson.
A man of little learning may prove to be his own enemy.
There is no end to learning and deriving pleasure from books.
When are you going to start learning English ‘
This child is learning alphabets.
Almost all good schools have introduced computer learning in higher classes.
Science has turned learning into a pleasure.
These days more and more people are learning English.
I am learning a new poem.
I am learning to play Cricket.
This child is learning alphabets.
Anything worth learning takes time to learn and time to teach.
He is learning his lesson.
He is not learning his lesson.
Is he learning his lesson ?
How long have you been learning English?
He is learning quickly.
I am learning a new poem.
How long have you been learning English ?
When are you going to start learning English ?
Man goes on learning from birth to death .
I am learning my lesson.
He was learning his lesson.
Are the boys learning their lesson ?
He is learning to drive.
I’m learning English.
He is learning to read and write.
Social learning is as important as academic learning.
I am learning to drive.
She is learning French.
When did you begin learning English?
He is busy in learning his lesson.
You will succeed in learning English.
The children are learning the multiplication tables by heart.
I’ve been learning to drive.
He was learning a poem.
What are you learning at school?
The children are learning to add and subtract.
He was convinced of the necessity of learning it.
We’re learning Chinese.
How long have you been learning English?
That child is good at learning poems by heart.
Categories example sentences© 2022 EXAMPLE-SENTENCES • Built with GeneratePress
concept learning in a sentence
These words are often used together. You can go to the definition of concept or the definition of learning.
Or, see other combinations with concept.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
It aims to synthesize similarity, concept learning, generalization, and reasoning.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Although this is an extreme example, bad performance is rife in studies of adult concept learning.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The idea that members of a class vary in their typicality is a recurrent theme in research on concept learning and categorization.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
However, it is somewhat surprising that well-established research on concept learning and categorization has had relatively little impact on theoretical and empirical work in neuropsychology.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
His research focuses on learning and inference in humans and machines, with specific interests in concept learning and generalization, similarity, reasoning, causal induction, and learning perceptual representations.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
While they are able to categorize information during concept learning, they may use a rule-based style of processing rather than an abstract or prototype form of processing.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
This assumption is common for the purpose of concept learning in fixed domains, where it is conventional to assume some version of the 'closed world hypothesis'.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Psychologists have shown repeatedly that concept learning with advance organizers and clues is always better than learning without cues.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Concept learning, pattern analysis, and decision tree generation algorithms, in general, should have the ability to handle continuous-valued attributes.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
It may also be possible to extend their concept learning model to consider the fundamental issue of representational adaptation.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Incremental concept learning in such domains requires the ability to recognize and adapt to such changes.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Concept learning may be simple or complex because learning takes place over many areas.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
As such, there has been a huge proliferation of concept learning theories.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
Concept learning must be distinguished from learning by reciting something from memory (recall) or discriminating between two things that differ (discrimination).
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
Concept learning is an adequate formalism to reason about complaints.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
Teaching younger students how to build sentences
The article deals with the problems of teaching younger schoolchildren how to construct a sentence as a unit of speech in the Russian language lessons and the methodology for overcoming these difficulties.
Key words: elementary school, Russian language, speech development, sentence as a unit of speech.
The development of communication skills in students is fundamentally related to the development of speech, which, in turn, contributes to the development of the child as a person as a whole. The entire system of teaching the Russian language at school, especially at its primary level, is built in such a way as to form in children the ability to competently express their thoughts through various language means. The most important place among all communicative units is the sentence.
Younger students often, due to their age and psychological characteristics, cannot build a sufficiently competent text consisting of context-related sentences. They build sentences in their speech incorrectly, isolated from the rest of the logic of the text, they cannot correctly place words in a sentence. All this causes an urgent need to teach younger students coherent speech by constructing sentences, taking into account all its morphological features.
The insufficiency of developing a methodology for teaching younger students to build a sentence, based not on a morphological concept, but as a unit of speech, as well as the need of a modern school to improve the efficiency of teachers' work on the ability of younger students to correctly build their colloquial speech, determines the relevance of this topic for research.
In modern linguistics, several classical views on the concept of a sentence are presented. This means that so far, scholars studying the proposal have not reached agreement on this issue.
In general, it is difficult to unambiguously define the essence of the concept of a sentence. A sentence as a unit of speech is a multi-valued, complex concept, and various scientists distinguish several main features in it. Two interpretations of the sentence are most common: one of them affects the psychological and communication side, the other - the grammatical one. It is impossible to call any of these interpretations wrong, but it is also impossible to designate the only correct one.
Such linguists as G. I. Banshchikova, N. I. Vasilkova, M. V. Vsevolodova, F. Danesh, G. A. Zolotova, S. A. Klimova, I. I. Kovtunova, K. G. Krushelnitskaya, O. A. Krylova, L. D. Mali, O. I. Moskalskaya, L. D. Sanina, O. B. Sirotinina, N. K. Onipenko, M. Yu. others
By the time they start school, the child is quite successful in mastering spoken language. At the same time, he is not yet completely motivated to master the written language. It is quite difficult for him to correctly write a sentence, and even more so a whole text. At the same time, he can rely only on his natural linguistic instinct, since he does not have sufficient skills for this. The task of the teacher is to teach the elementary school student to competently build both the sentence and the entire text, to consolidate the acquired skills at a conscious level. To do this, it is necessary to explain what are the patterns of interaction between words within a sentence, how to correctly place this sentence inside the text without violating the communication logic of the entire text as a whole.
The student must understand how sentences are connected within the text, which allows you to save the main idea in it. Thus, in order for the student to move from intuitive possession of speech to the conscious use of various means of language, including sentences, in the learning process, he must be taught to distinguish between the means of language, to correlate them with speech activity.
At the first stage of teaching younger students to the sentence construction system, it is necessary to analyze together with them the texts of various authors in order for them to learn to isolate sentences from the text and understand the role of a particular sentence in the context of the entire passage. It is possible to use tasks that require you to complete the missing words in the sentence.
The next stage of learning can be a comparative analysis of various passages from the text in which full and incomplete sentences are used. At the same time, younger students determine how the text has changed with the appearance of additional words in it.
Has the expression, expressiveness, dynamism of the text changed, has the meaning of the passage remained the same or changed? You can offer the following type of tasks: supplement the author's text in your own words and draw conclusions about whether the text has changed for better or worse and why.
The third stage of work can be editorial work with texts that have various speech and structural errors. Students, correcting the text, thereby learn to avoid such speech errors in their own speech.
Teaching the Russian language in a modern school presupposes, first of all, a competence-based approach that forms the student's personality. This is facilitated by an integrated approach in the process of teaching coherent speech. In this regard, it was considered how modern teaching aids used in elementary school build a system of teaching a sentence, what they focus on the attention of students.
For analysis, we took several Russian language textbooks for the second grades of general education schools included in the list of textbooks recommended by the Ministry of Education as corresponding to the Federal State Educational Standard.
[4, 5, 7, 9, 10]
After the analysis, the following conclusion was made: the system of teaching a sentence in most textbooks is built in such a way that more attention is paid to the morphological features of the sentence. To a lesser extent, the sentence is considered as a unit of speech, only certain exercises contribute to learning how to build a sentence from individual elements and intonation during pronunciation. Thus, for primary school teachers, the experience of the research work done in the future is of undoubted benefit.
The experimental part of the work was carried out on the basis of 2 "A" class MBOU "Secondary School No. 25" of the city of Smolensk for one academic year.
The learning process in this class is based on the principles of L. V. Zankov's developmental system, the main component of which is the unity of three components: didactics, teaching methods and work practice. At the same time, the goal of education is the optimal development of each child in the class in all general education subjects and the Russian language in particular.
This system, in which the emphasis is on creating a child's ideas about a holistic picture of the surrounding world, is the best suited for teaching younger students to build a sentence as a unit of speech.
The goal of all experimental and pedagogical work in teaching second-graders to construct a sentence as a unit of speech was that, in the process of learning, second-graders would learn to successfully solve various communicative tasks. To achieve this goal, sociocultural and cognitive-research motivations for learning activities were used.
At the ascertaining stage of the experiment, a comprehensive test work on the Russian language was carried out. The purpose of this work was to determine the level of formation of meta-subject results in second grade students based on the results of mastering the program in the subject "Russian language" for the first half of the second grade of elementary school. The main objective of this comprehensive work was to establish the level of mastery of key skills (development of skills in constructing a sentence, the ability to work with text, understand and follow instructions) that allow you to successfully advance in the development of educational material at the next stage of training.
The test work consisted of two parts: main and additional. There are six tasks in the main part of the work. They were aimed at assessing the formation of such methods of action and concepts that will serve as a support in further learning to build a sentence as a unit of speech. The work included tasks for working with both texts and individual sentences.
The results led to the following conclusions:
1) When testing to identify the skills and abilities of working with a sentence and text, it was possible to establish that, in general, all students of the experimental class coped with the basic part of the tasks. Not all students completed the tasks of increased difficulty.
2) The level of success in performing various tasks turned out to be below the average, which determined the need to develop and conduct a whole system of tasks and exercises aimed at developing the skills of creating a sentence as a unit of speech in second graders.
Based on the results of this testing, we have developed a system of exercises for second-graders aimed at developing the skills of creating a sentence as a unit of speech.
In the process of work, the following classification of types of exercises was built:
1) Receptive; 2) Reproductive; 3) Productive (constructive and creative).
When selecting texts for assignments, the following requirements were taken into account:
- The text should trace the communicative connection of sentences with each other;
– Offers must comply with certain standard models;
- Sentences in the text should be homogeneous in their structure;
All sentences in the text must belong to the same speech register.
Let us consider in more detail the system of exercises used in the practical work on the formation of the skills of constructing a sentence as a unit of speech in second-graders.
I type of exercises - "Linguistic experiment" (L. V. Shcherba, A. M. Peshkovsky)
Students are offered two types of tasks:
1) Positive linguistic experiment. Observing how the author's text is organized, according to what rules the sentences in the text are built, the second-grader must follow the model to compose his own small text from disparate sentences.
2) Negative linguistic experiment. The student, after observing the author's text, is asked to find a sentence in which the word order in the sentence is deliberately violated, and to determine that this error entails deviations in the context.
II type of exercises - communicative continuity of sentences. Students are asked to find at the end of the first sentence those words that correspond to the words in the next sentence.
III type of exercises - work with built-in sentences as elements of texts. The student is offered a sentence that must be placed inside the text.
Thus, this system of exercises developed in students their cognitive activity and skills with practical skills in working with sentences as a unit of speech throughout the school year.
Upon completion of the system of work aimed at developing in students the skills of creating a sentence as a unit of speech, testing was carried out on tests of two levels of complexity: basic and advanced complexity.
This testing made it possible to determine how successful the work done was. The conclusions drawn from the testing are as follows:
– The ability to build a sentence as a unit of speech in younger students is present at various levels: receptive, reproductive and productive.
– Understanding on the basis of what patterns words are arranged in a sentence to create a communicative connection between sentences in a text, younger students have an intuitive level.
- The degree of mastery of these skills, however, remains at an insufficiently high level, which does not allow them to independently successfully create the entire text from sentences interconnected by a certain word order, which ensures the communicative connection of all sentences in the text.
- Students have not yet gained enough experience in observing author's texts, which does not allow them to successfully create their proposals in such a way that they fit organically into the context of the author's text.
Thus, when using this system of exercises in the lessons of the Russian language in primary school, it is possible to largely form the skills and abilities of students to create a sentence as a unit of speech. Also, this work will prepare students in the future in the middle school to move from an intuitive level to a theoretical generalization of the knowledge gained using terms and rules.
Literature:
- Balandina, N. M. How to teach a child to write correctly? / N. M. Balandina // Primary school management. - 2016. - No. 5. P.82 -94
- Bulanova S. Yu. Methodical approaches to the study of types of simple and complex sentences by junior schoolchildren / S. Yu. Bulanova // Bulletin of the Northern Federal University. - 2010. - No. 5. S. 98–103.
- Bulanova, S. Yu. Methodical approaches to the study of the syntax of the Russian language [Text] / S. Yu. Bulanova // Elementary school. - 2015. - No. 2. - P. 27–30
- Buneev R.
N., Pronina O.V., Buneeva E.V.: Russian language. Textbook for the 2nd grade of educational institutions, - M .: Education, 2017 - Kanakina V.P. Koretsky V.G. Russian language grade 2. - M .: Education, 2017 Series "School of Russia"
- Kostenko, N.V. Author's development of multi-level tasks for testing knowledge in the Russian language [Text] / N.V. Kostenko // Practical advice to the teacher. - 2016. - No. 3. - P.13–16.
- Nechaeva N. V. Russian language. Textbook for grade 2. - Samara: Educational Literature Publishing House, 2016
- Marchenko, S. A. Control and measuring materials in the Russian language [Text] / S. A. Marchenko // Elementary school. - 2010. - No. 12. - P. 22–25.
- Ramzaeva T. G. Russian language. Grade 2: textbook. — M.: Bustard, 2017
- Soloveichik M. S., Kuzmenko N. S. Russian language: To the secrets of our language: a textbook for the 2nd grade of educational institutions. — Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2017
Basic terms (automatically generated) : unit of speech, sentence, Russian language, text, sentence construction, student, author's text, learning process, exercise system, elementary school.
5 simple rules for word order in English
Unlike Russian, words in English do not have endings that could help to understand the role of each member of the sentence. Compare:
Tom is chasing Jerry. Tom is chasing Jerry.
Jerry is chasing Tom. Jerry is chasing Tom.
We swapped only two words, but completely changed the meaning of the sentence. In addition, a certain word order makes it clear to the interlocutor what type of sentence is being discussed: affirmative, negative, interrogative, imperative or exclamatory.
To understand, let's remember what are the members of the sentence.
Grammatical basis:
- subject - the subject that performs the action or is described in the sentence, answers the questions "Who?" or "What?"
- predicate - a verb expressing the action or state of the subject
Secondary members of the sentence:
- addition - the object to which the action is directed.
Allocate direct object, which answers the questions "Who?" or “What?”, and indirect, which answers the questions “To whom?” or "What?" - definition - expresses the characteristics of an object or subject, a test question - "What?", "Whose?" or "Which?"
- circumstance - a word or expression that shows how, where, when, how long or how often an action was performed
In grammar, it is customary to distinguish two types of word order: direct (Direct Order) , which is used in narrative (affirmative and negative) sentences, and indirect (Indirect Order) , which helps to ask a question, express an exclamation, or even give an order .
Direct order
The main feature of the direct word order in statements and negations is that the predicate comes strictly after the subject. Let's analyze 5 basic rules for each of the members of the proposal:
1. Subject in first place
In affirmative sentences, the subject usually comes before the predicate and can be expressed by a noun (with or without an article), a pronoun, an infinitive, a gerund, or a construction of several words:
| Subject | Predicate | Translation | |
| The cat | is purring. | The cat is purring. | |
| They | say. | They're talking. | |
| Swimming | is popular. | Swimming is popular. | |
| What they want to know | is top secret. | What they want to know is top secret. |
2. Second predicate
The predicate can be expressed by one semantic verb or several (remember the auxiliary verb, followed by the main one). With verbs like to be (to be) or to become (become), the predicate may also include other parts of speech - an adjective, participle, or noun. The particle not in negative sentences is also part of the predicate.
| Subject | Predicate | Translation |
| Tim | ran. | Tim ran. |
| The dog | is hungry. | The dog is hungry. |
| The roof | was not painted. | The roof has not been painted. |
In passive constructions, as in the sentence "The roof was not painted", the subject is the object to which the action is directed, and the direct word order is preserved.
3. Addition - after the predicate
Addition, if it is in the sentence, as a rule, is expressed by another noun (proper name or common noun) and is used after the predicate.
If there are two objects in the sentence - both direct and indirect, then each fights for primacy according to the following rule:
- first indirect object without a preposition, then - direct object
| Subject | Predicate | Indirect addition | Direct addition |
| Nancy | gave | me | a present. |
| Nancy gave me a present. (Semantic emphasis on the word "gift", because this is what is important for the speaker.) | |||
- either put the direct object first, and then the indirect object with the preposition to
| Subject | Predicate | Direct addition | Indirect addition |
| Ray | will send | a postcard | to his parents. |
| Ray will send a postcard to his parents. (It is more important not what he sends, but to whom.) | |||
4. Set the circumstance according to the situation
Depending on the context and type of circumstance, they can be placed at the end, beginning or middle of a sentence.
- At the end of the offer
The circumstances of the mode of action, place and time most often take place at the end of the sentence after the predicate or after the object, if any.
Circumstances of indefinite frequency (for example, sometimes - sometimes, often - often) are also sometimes used at the end of a sentence to draw the interlocutor's attention to them.
| Subject | Predicate | Supplement | Circumstance | Translation |
| Mary | is walking | slowly. | Mary walks slowly | |
| The children | play | football | in the playground. | Children play football on the playground. |
| Antony | decorated | the house | today. | Anthony decorated the house today. |
| Lisa | eats | meat | sometimes. | Lisa eats meat sometimes. |
If it is necessary to put several circumstances in a row, they must go in this order:
| Subject | Predicate | Circumstance of course of action | circumstance of place | Circumstance of time |
| Sarah | sang | beautifully | in the karaoke bar | last Friday. |
| Sarah | sang | fine | in karaoke bar | last Friday. |
| Antony | decorated | the house | today. | Anthony decorated the house today. |
| Lisa | eats | meat | sometimes. | Lisa eats meat sometimes. |
- At the beginning of the offer
Connecting adverbs ( then - then, next - then), adverbs of opinion expression ( surprisingly - unexpectedly, unfortunately - unfortunately), adverbs of degree of certainty ( maybe , perhaps - maybe) are used at the beginning of a sentence. Circumstances of time, place, indefinite frequency are also sometimes used at the beginning of a sentence to highlight them in speech.
| Circumstance | Subject | Predicate | Supplement | Translation |
| Suddenly | the window | closed. | The window closed unexpectedly. | |
| Stupidly, | Phill | didn't take | his wallet. | Foolishly, Phil didn't take the keys. |
| Usually | Monica | cooks | the turkey. | Monika usually cooks the turkey. |
| Perhaps, | the train | is late. | The train may be late. | |
| In March | we | bought | a car. | We bought a car in March. |
- In the middle of the grammatical basis
Some circumstances are used after the subject, after the auxiliary verbs and after the forms of the verb to be (to be).
If the auxiliary verb is expressed in two words, for example have been , then the circumstance is placed between them.
As a rule, we are talking about circumstances that indicate the completion of the action ( almost - almost), the indefinite frequency of the action ( always - always), on the degree of confidence of the speaker ( probably - probably). In addition, adverbs of mode of action can be used in the middle of a sentence, focusing ( even - even) and expressing an opinion ( fortunately - fortunately) adverbs.
| Subject | Auxiliary verb/verb to be | Circumstance | Semantic verb / nominal part of compound predicate | Supplement | Translation |
| Professor Umbridge | was | probably | too strict | with her students. | Professor Umbridge was probably too strict with her students |
| Linda | has | never | contacted | me. | Linda never contacted me |
| Randy | had | almost | been killed. | Randy was nearly killed. | |
| He | has | fortunately | escaped. | Luckily he escaped | |
| I | have | even | brought | some sandwiches. | I even brought sandwiches. |
| Susan | angrily | shut | the door. | Susan slammed the door in a rage |
In negative sentences, circumstances are usually placed after the particle not, but if they want to emphasize the negative, then before the auxiliary verb. Also, the adverb is always placed before the abbreviated form of the verb.
Michael does not often have headaches Michael does not often have headaches.
I certainly do not support your decision. - I don't support your decision at all.
We probably won't come to the party. We may not be coming to the party.
There are adverbs, for example really (in fact), only (only), which can freely change their place in the sentence, creating different semantic stresses or changing the meaning. For example:
Leo doesn't really like dancing. - Leo doesn't really like to dance.
Leo really doesn't like dancing.
- Leo doesn't really like to dance.
We tell you more about the types and place of adverbs in a sentence here.
5. We put the definition before or after the noun
The definition is used before or after the noun on which it depends.
- Attributes expressed by adjectives, participles, possessive pronouns and ordinal numbers come before the noun.
| Definition of | Subject | Predicate | Definition | Supplement | Translation |
| Richard | is dating | a very good-looking | girl. | Richard is dating a very beautiful girl. | | |
| My | aunt | will look | after the dog. | My aunt will look after the dog. | |
| John | didn't love | his second | wife. | John did not love his second wife. | |
| The scientist | was watching | flying | birds. | A scientist was watching birds in flight. | |
If you need to describe an object with several adjectives, you should do it in this order:
| Size | Age | Form | Color | Origin | Material | Exists |
| a little | black | silk | dress | |||
| small | black | silk | dress | |||
| old | brown | Italian | leather | boots | ||
| old | brown | Italian | leather | boots | ||
| a huge | ancient | round | temple | |||
| huge | ancient | round | temple |
- The definition is used after the noun if it is expressed by a participial phrase or other construction of several words, as well as in the case of some adjectives.
| Definition of | Subject | Predicate | Supplement | Definition |
| Your | sister | ordered | a steak | made of soya. |
| Yours | sister | ordered | steak, | made from soy. |
| The manager | was searching | for methods | of motivation. | |
| Manager | searched for | methods | motivation. | |
| They | asked | for the tickets | available. | |
| Oni | asked | about available | tickets. |
Relative clauses
Relative order is preserved in subordinate clauses, even if it is violated in the main clause.
| Main offer | Soyuz | Subsidiary clause |
| Mum wants to know | where | you go. |
| Mom wants to know | to | you are going. |
| Tell me | where | you go. |
| Tell me | to | you are going. |
| Do you know | where | you go? |
| You know | to | are you going? |
Thus, the basic word order scheme looks like this:
Subject + Predicate + Object + Circumstance
Watch a video where a native speaker explains the rules for constructing sentences using understandable examples (in Russian with English and Russian subtitles):
Indirect word order
When the sequence "subject-predicate" is violated, one speaks of indirect word order.
Questions
In colloquial speech, you can ask a question with a direct word order, changing only the intonation, as we do in Russian, but English grammar has its own rules for this. Each type of question has its own special word order, and in most cases the auxiliary verb (or part of it), verb to be or a modal verb is placed before the subject.
See examples of general, special and alternative questions:
| Question word | Auxiliary verb | Subject | Semantic verb / nominal part of the predicate | Supplement |
| Does | Marschall | like | olives? | |
| Marshal | loves | olives? | ||
| Is | Sheldon | smart? | ||
| Sheldon | smart? | |||
| When | will | Ted | meet | Tracy? |
| When | Ted | will meet | Tracy? | |
| Have | you | watched | "How I Met Your Mother" or "The Big Band Theory"? | |
| You | watched | How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory? | ||
| What | have | you | been reading? | |
| What is | you | read? | ||
| Can | Barney | play | lasertag? | |
| Can | Barney | play | in laser tag? |
Particle not in negative questions (“Is it?”) is used together with an auxiliary verb:
Don’t you know the rules? Don't you know the rules?
Note that the question word in special questions is placed at the beginning of the sentence and replaces an unknown object, definition or circumstance.
At the same time, if a preposition is needed in a question for an addition, it is put at the end of the question:
What did they clean the windows with? - What did they clean the windows with?
In a question to the subject, the words what or who logically replace it:
Who has stolen the Christmas? - Who Stole Christmas?
A tag question is usually used when they want to get confirmation of what has been said. It consists of an affirmative or negative main clause and a short question at the end. In the interrogative part, the subject and predicate are also interchanged:
Dad didn’t forget to buy the presents, did he? - Dad didn't forget to buy gifts, right? (Or did Daddy buy gifts, right?)
Learn more about the different types of questions and their features in our other article.
Imperative statements
Orders or requests usually do not have a subject.
Otherwise, the typical word order is preserved: the predicate, then the addition, the remaining members of the sentence are arranged depending on the situation. If the speaker wants to emphasize who he is addressing, he can do this before or after the verb:
| Appeal | Predicate | Appeal | Supplement |
| Toby, | come | to me. | |
| Toby, | come | to me. | |
| Relax, | everybody. | ||
| Relax, | all. |
Pronoun you before the imperative makes the phrase more emotional:
You get away from me! - Get off me!
In negative imperative statements, the address must come after the particle not .
This helps to distinguish a request or command from a simple denial:
| Imperative | Negative offer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Don't you dare! Don't you dare! | You don't dare. You don't dare. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Don't anybody panic! - Don't Panic! | Nobody panics. Nobody is panicking. | how (how), what and the negative questions we talked about earlier
| How | Definition | Subject | Predicate |
| How | beautiful! | ||
| Like | beautiful! | ||
| How | windy | it | is. |
| Like | windy! | ||
| How | you | have grown! | |
| Like | you | has grown! |
- exclamations with what
what is usually followed by an adjective or noun (definition, subject or object) then normal word order is preserved.
| What | Definition | Supplement | Subject | Predicate |
| What | a surprise! | |||
| What | surprise! | |||
| What | a lovely | evening! | ||
| What | wonderful | evening! | ||
| What | a dazzling | smile | your cousin | has! |
| What | dazzling | smile | from your cousin. |
- Sayings since may
Modal verb may in exclamations is sometimes placed at the beginning of a sentence before the subject to give the statement a certain style or emotion.
May they rot in hell! - May they rot in hell!
By the way, the famous phrase from Star Wars is also based on this technique:
May the Force be with you! - May the Force be with you!
- Negative questions
Some native speakers may use negative questions in the form of exclamations, for example:
Isn't it lovely! - Isn't that wonderful!
These and other ways to express your emotions in English are described in detail here.
There is/there are
To say that something is somewhere or vice versa, use the phrases there is for singular objects and there are for plural objects.
The word there , which usually means "there", is not translated here. Verb forms to be (is, are) act as a predicate followed by a subject
There is a croissant for you on the table. - There is a croissant on the table for you.
There are two designers in our team. — There are two designers in our team.
Inversion
Sometimes the direct word order in statements and negations is deliberately violated in order to achieve some special stylistic effect. Remember Master Yoda from Star Wars:
Disturb me, you must not! Practicing I am. You shouldn't interfere with me. I practice.
In real life, as a rule, inversion is used in business or literary speech. Here are some more examples:
Ellen was very religious, as were many of her friends. - Ellen was very religious, as were many of her friends.
Under no circumstances can we publish these documents.
- Under no circumstances should these documents be published.
Directly in front of them stood a great castle. - Right in front of them was a magnificent castle.
"I'm here", whispered Jim. "I'm here," Jim whispered.
A vivid example from colloquial speech: to say “me too”, set expressions are used with the words so (in affirmations) and neither (in negatives) :
- I don’t watch TV. I don't watch TV.
Neither do I. Neither do I.
In addition, in informal conversation, inversion is often used with the words here and there
There goes your girlfriend! "Here comes your girlfriend!"
Detailed information about the cases when you can change places of words, you will find in this article.
Incomplete sentences
Along with inversion, some sentence members may simply be missing.
Native speakers may skip certain words or phrases in a conversation if they are already clear from the context, or to separate a very long sentence. Here are some examples:
Seen Brian? (=Have you seen Brian?) Have you seen Brian?
David went to Florence, and Linda (went) to Berlin. - David went to Florence and Linda went to Berlin.
Though intelligent, he was very poorly educated. (=Though he was very intelligent…) — Although he was very intelligent, he was very poorly educated.
You can read about sentence fragments here.
Additionally, you can watch how a native speaker talks about the wrong word order in English (in Russian with Russian and English subtitles):
Conclusions
To summarize:
- In English grammar, direct and indirect word order is distinguished.
- Direct order is used in affirmations and negations.
