Syntax Flashcards
Simple sentence
A simple sentence is a sentence with one independent clause.
Example: The girl drew the picture.
Compound sentence
A compound sentence contains two or more independent clauses.
Example: This house is too expensive, and that house is too small.
Complex sentence
A complex sentence is a sentence that contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
Examples: Because my coffee was too cold, I heated it in the microwave.
Compound-complex sentence
A compound-complex sentence contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
Example: Sarah liked lollipops, and she ate hers up quickly when she saw Amy looking at it.
Minor sentence
A short sentence with no verb.
Example: Three o’clock
Clause
A clause is a group of words which can stand alone as a complete unit of meaning. It has a subject and a verb.
Phrase
A phrase is a group of words that is part of a sentence, not the whole sentence. [ie. “not the whole sentence” is a phrase].
Imperative sentence
An imperative sentence gives a command. Commands ask or tell people to do something.
Example: Go clean your room.
Exclamatory sentence
An exclamatory sentence usually ends with an exclamation point (!).
Example: Shut up!
Interrogative sentence
An interrogative sentence is a type of sentence that asks a question.
Example: Why do you ask?
Declarative sentence
A declarative sentence makes a statement.
Example: It’s a nice day today.
Rhetorical question
Used to persuade or subtly influence the audience. It’s a question asked not for the answer, but for the effect.
Example: Why bother then?
End-stopped lines (in poetry)
An end-stop occurs when a line of poetry ends with a period or definite punctuation mark, such as a colon. When lines are end-stopped, each line is its own phrase or unit of syntax. So when you read an end-stopped line, you’ll naturally pause.
Enjambment (in poetry)
In poetry, enjambment is incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning runs over from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation.
Anaphora
Is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighbouring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.
