The Subject Position and the Verb Position

Here we deal with basic sentence structure of any English sentence.

There are three main types of sentence structures in English: simple, compound, and complex.  Every sentence has a simple sentence at its root.

Before you begin the activities, you may want to study the podcast and grammar lesson, He's Always Talking about Grammar , also in our Library.

Back to the Basics...

Every sentence in English has a subject and a verb. 

There must be a noun or pronoun in the subject position (S). 

There must be a verb in the verb position (V).

The Subject Position


Every sentence must have a noun or pronoun in the subject position.

WHERE'S THE ERROR?

PROBLEM: I like to take walks when is not cold out.

SOLUTION:   I like to take walks when it is not cold out.

Faulty Double Subjects 


Some other languages allow the speaker or writer to indicate the subject and then use a pronoun reference immediately afterwards. Be careful if your native language is like this, because in English, this is not permissible.

English is a different language with its own sentence structure.

PROBLEM:   The young boy, he didn't listen.
SOLUTION:      The young boy didn't listen.

The Verb Position


Every sentence must have a verb in the verb position.

Some other languages do not require the verb position to be filled with the verb is a be (a stative) verb. Is your first language like this?  If so, be extra careful because in English, every sentence must have a verb in the verb position.

WHERE'S THE ERROR?

PROBLEM:     This my opinion.
SOLUTION:        This is my opinion.

Next...

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