What’s a declarative sentence?

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A declarative sentence announces something and is identified by a period. The subject is usually prominent. There are more complex types of sentences, but shorter declarative sentences show the subject-verb relationship. Adding words and clauses helps create full declarative sentences.

A declarative sentence is a sentence that simply announces something to a listener or group of listeners. The declarative sentence is one of four main sentence types in the English language: the other three are imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory sentences. Considering these types of basic sentences can help beginners understand more about how English speakers use the language to communicate.

An easy way to identify declarative sentences is through punctuation. A period is used to end a declarative sentence. Conversely, the interrogative sentence ends with a question mark and an exclamation mark is used to end an exclamation sentence. The imperative sentence can use both a period and an exclamation point. Beginners will need another way to distinguish this type of sentence.

Where an imperative sentence is a sentence including a command or suggestion, the declarative sentence is simply saying something to someone. A feature of the declarative sentence is that the subject is usually very prominent. For example, if a native English speaker says, “I went to the store today,” that’s an example of a declarative sentence. In this simple sentence, the subject “I” is the first word, followed by the verb and the predicate part of the sentence.

In addition to these simple types of sentences, there are others that can be more complex. These are common to old English usage. For example, historical English speakers may have started a sentence with “I Declaration to you…” where the declarative sentence is clearly labelled. Over time, as the English language has changed, these types of formal statements have mostly been erased from the language.

A declarative sentence has a construction that often allows readers to get a good view of the classic subject-verb relationship present in most English constructions. The shorter declarative types of sentences are a good example of this. If a native English speaker says “Birds fly”. as a whole sentence, this declaration consists only of the subject “bird” and the corresponding verb “to fly”. This is not usually how English speakers speak, but it does present a pattern to expand on for a better understanding of how English words fit together in sentences. For example, adding the word “good” as an adverb is one of the most common expansions of this type of sentence; these types of words, along with extra clauses and constructions, help English speakers create full declarative sentences that say more about what they are trying to express.




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