Kinds of Sentences
Kinds of Sentences :
1. Leena wanted to invite us to her house. This is what she said…
2. Leena : Won’t you come into the house? Come into the house.
3. We went into the house.
4. What a cosy house it was!
Take a look once again at the sentences we have just read.
You will notice that each sentence is of a different kind. The first one asks a (interrogative sentence), the second one is a request (imperative sentence), the third is a statement (assertive sentence) and the fourth is an exclamation (exclamatory sentence).
There are four kinds of sentences.
Assertive or Declarative Sentence : a statement
An assertive sentence is a sentence states a fact. Such sentences are simple statements. They state, assert or declare something.
For example :
Mohit is a student. He lives in a big city.
An assertive sentence can be further divided into affirmative sentence and negative sentence.
An affirmative sentence makes a statement.
For example :
Hari is a tall boy.
A negative sentence is one in which there is a no, not or never.
For example :
Navin is not a tall boy.
A sentence that has a negative meaning but does not have a no, not or never in it cannot be called a negative sentence.
For example :
I am not happy.
This is a negative sentence because of the presence of the word not.
I am unhappy.
This is an affirmative sentence even though the meaning is the same as the sentence given above.
Imperative Sentence : a command
An imperative sentence is a sentence which gives command, makes a request or expresses a wish.
For example :
Go to your room. (An order)
Please lend me your book. (A request)
Have a good time at the picnic. (A wish)
Interrogative Sentence : a question
An interrogative sentence is a sentence that ask question.
For example :
What is your name?
Where do you live?
Exclamatory Sentence : an exclamation
An exclamatory sentence is a sentence that expresses sudden and strong feelings, such as surprise, wonder, pity, sympathy, happiness or gratitude.
For example :
What a shame!
Boy, am I tired!
Interjections : Interjections are short words or utterances which show strong feelings or emotions. They are spoken when a person is very surprised, happy or upset. Interjections are not always complete sentences. Sometimes they are more like a noise than a word.
For example :
1. Hurrah! We won the competition.
2. Ouch! It hurts.
3. Wow! What a nice shirt.
4. Hey! What are you doing?
5. Alas! My parrot is dead.
6. Oh! I forgot to bring my purse.
7. Hush! Silence in the library.
8. Dear me! You won the poetry competition.
9. Wow! Your mother is making kebabs.
10. Look! There is a monkey in my bedroom.
11. Phew! The boring movie is finally over.
The different kinds of sentences make reading and writing more interesting. To get a better understanding of using the different kinds of sentences, read the following paragraph.
My favourite type of food is pizza. I just love tomato and double cheese pizza. I could eat pizzas morning, noon and night. I think I shall order a pizza right now.
Now compare this paragraph to the one below.
What is your favourite type of food? Mine is pizza. I just love tomato and double cheese pizza. I never get tired of it. Sometimes I think I could eat pizzas morning, noon and night! All this talk of pizza is making me hungry. Let us order a pizza now.
What kind of sentence did we use in the first paragraph? What kinds of sentence did we use the second paragraph?
You can see, when we use the different kinds of sentences, the paragraph becomes more interesting to read.
Given below is a paragraph. It contains some information. Make this paragraph interesting by rewriting it using the different kinds of sentences as shown above.
This summer vacation I visited the Ajanta Caves. Several of my friends went with me. We explored all the caves. The paintings were very beautiful. I bought a postcard with my favourite painting. We were proud that India had such fine artists. We would like to go back to the caves next year.
Earlier we had learnt about the different kinds of sentences - assertive, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory. We differentiated between these sentences based on what each of them did.
The assertive sentence makes a statement.
The interrogative sentence asks a question.
The imperative sentence issues a command or a request.
The exclamatory sentence expresses a strong emotion.
Another way to classify sentences is to differentiate between them based on the number of clauses they contain. In order to do that, let us first briefly revise what finite and non-finite verbs are.
Kinds of Sentences
The Sentences Index
