CH14A Communication and Ethics for Engineers

Grammar for Engineers I

Sentence Construction

What is a sentence?

  • A sentence is a group of words which makes sense in itself.
  • It must contain a subject, at least one complete verb, and one main item of information (a complete thought) to which various subsidiary ideas may be added.

How is asentencecomposed?

A clause is a group of words that contains a subject (doer of the action) and a predicate (the action in the sentence) and functions as part of a sentence.

A main or independentclausemust contain a subject and a verb and express a complete thought.

A subordinate or dependentclausedoes not mean anything on its own; it depends on the main clause to give it meaning.

Examples:

Sentence: The meetingstartedat 4:00 p.m.

subjectpredicatephrase (prepositional)

Clauses:Although he tried to hurry, he was late for the meeting.

subordinatemain

A phrase is a group of related words that does not include a subject and verb.

Examples:

Prepositional phrases (start with a preposition): Within minutes…

Infinitive phrases (start with verb in infinitive form):To understand the programme, …

Participial phrases (contains verb participle): Its slopes collapsing, …

2.SENTENCE STRUCTURES

There are threecommon sentence structures: simple, compound and complex.

1 / Simple:
  • Contains 1 main clause.
  • Expresses one main idea.
/ Lava from a nonexplosive eruption ordinarily contains only 0.2 percent water.
2 / Compound:
  • Contains 2 or more main clauses.
  • Expresses 2 or more ideas of equal importance.
Possible sentence patterns:
  • Main clauses (joined by coordinating conjunctions – and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet)
  • Main clauses joined by a semi-colon.
Compound sentencepossible sentence patterns:
  • Main clauses joined by a semi-colon and a transitional word – therefore, moreover, thus, consequently, however, also.
/ Precursor activity to the eruption began on March 20, 1980, and many times during the next two months the mountain shook for minutes.
Precursor activity to the eruption began on March 20, 1980; many times during the next two months the mountain shook for minutes.
The initial cost of the machine is high;however, maintenance is relatively inexpensive.
3 / Complex
  • Contains a main clause joined with one or more subordinate clauses.
  • Expresses a main idea supported by subsidiary information.
Possible sentence patterns:
  • Subordinate conjunction and subordinate clause. followed by main clause.
  • Main clause followed by subordinate conjunction and subordinate clause.
Examples of subordinate conjunctions/dependent markersare because, before, since, while, although, if, until, when, then, after, as, as if. / Although the amount of devastation caused by the May 18 blast was a surprise, the eruption itself had been expected for weeks.
The eruption itself had been expected for weeks although the amount of devastation caused by the May 18 blast was a surprise.
Note: When the subordinate clause starts a sentence, a comma is used before the main clause (See example 2 above). However, if the main clause starts a sentence, no comma is necessary (See example 1 above).

September 26, 2005.