Combining Clauses into Sentences: Coordination

Alright kids, this is where the rubber meets the road. All other articles on this site discussed different parts of grammar, their purposes and correct usage, and how to identify them. All of this, of course, leads up to the creation of the almighty sentence, one of the abilities that sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. So, now that you’re thoroughly inspired, let’s dig in to how all previous grammar studies go in to the formation of a sentence.

Until now, the word sentence and clause has been used interchangeably. However, in this chapter I will distinguish between sentence and clause, so that you may be able to understand which is being discussed.
Sentence: a component of grammar that consists of one or more clauses
The thing to notice here is that a sentence may be only made of one clause. That is the case of almost every example provided in each article, which is why clause and sentence can both be used to describe the same thing. When a sentence only has one clause it is referred to as a simple sentence.
Simple Sentence: a sentence consisting of only one clause
So, sentences such as “The dog stole the Thanksgiving turkey!” is a simple sentence because it only has one clause; the sentence cannot be broken down any farther. However, this article is about building larger sentences.

COORDINATION
Many sentences are not simple sentences. Oftentimes, we must use multiple clauses to explain a thought or convey information. These sentences are called compound sentences.
Compound Sentence: a sentence containing two or more clauses
     However, one cannot simply mash two clauses together and expect them to make sense. I cannot say “speak now forever hold your peace” unless I want people to think I’m writing abstract poetry.
Instead, we must use our handy coordinating conjunctions. These, if you remember, can either be simple, such as and, for, so, nor, yet, but, and or, or correlative, such as not only/but, both/and, either/or, and neither/nor. These words coordinate the relationship between both clauses and let the reader/listener know how the clauses interact with each other.
The coordinating conjunction and can be used in several ways. It can be used to link facts together, such as:
Cats are snobs and dogs are goofballs.
It can be used to show an order of event relationship:
She ate at Taco Bell and she had an ice cream sundae for dessert.
It may suggest a cause-and-effect relationship:
Eat the last cookie again and you’ll be sleeping with the fish tomorrow!

The conjunction so makes the first clause be a reason for the second:
She was stuffed from Thanksgiving dinner, so she went to bed at 7 PM.

     But and yet signify that the second clause doesn’t meet the expectations of the first clause:
Ashley was excited about the date, but he never showed up.
The mechanics swore the car was fine, yet the car broke down.

Or denotes that the clauses are alternatives:
We could go to the movies or we could Netflix and chill.

     For shows that the second clause is the reason for the first; the opposite of so:
Cassandra received an A in her class, for she was a hard-working student.

Nor indicates that the second clause is a continuing negative of the first:
That waitress was neither polite nor efficient.

Another thing to always keep in mind that a compound sentence can be more than just two clauses, and multiple conjunctions may be used to indicate relationships between each clause.
Ashley was excited about the date, but he never showed up, so she went home and she ate a tub of ice cream.

One grammar rule to keep in mind: if a clause has a sentence adverb, it cannot be part of a sentence with the first clause. Here is an example:
My room is a mess, but I refuse to clean it.
My room is a mess. However, I refuse to clean it.
The tricky part is that two sentences like that can be joined by a semicolon, which will trick some students into believing the two sentences are one.
My room is a mess; however, I refuse to clean it.
A simple way to remember whether you are looking at one or two sentences is that coordinating conjunctions link two clauses together but are not really part of either one, while sentence adverbs are usually part of the second sentence.

ELLIPSIS
     Without coordination between clauses, communication would be difficult. However, combining clauses can create some redundancy as well. For example:
I cooked the fajitas and I ate the fajitas.
Most would simply say, “I cooked and ate the fajitas.” This elimination of redundant material is called ellipsis.
Ellipsis: omitting repeated material
     Ellipsis is very common in conversation and in writing, as the relationship between clauses and the information in those clauses often overlaps. Thank goodness for ellipsis, right?

Discourse Function

While many of the title posts have been self-explanatory, only a true fellow Grammar Geek will be able to define discourse function, which is a fancy way of saying that how one punctuates a sentence or talks denotes the “voice” in which the speaker is speaking.

Discourse Function: the communicative objective of a sentence 

I will give you a few examples:
You ate the last cookie.
Did you eat the last cookie?
Eat the last cookie, I dare you.
How rude to eat the last cookie!
While the sentences are identical in all but the ending punctuation, anyone reading those three sentences will know that they have completely different communication goals.

DECLARATIVES
     The first sentence is a statement of fact, called a declarative. This is the most commonly used discourse function, as most writing and conversation is meant to convey facts or observations.
Declarative: a sentence type meant to convey information or observations
     Declarative sentences always end with a period, and when spoken, the intonation, or pitch, falls at the end of the sentence. Even as you are reading this, the voice in your head sounding it out is falling in intonation at the end of each sentence. Just remember: a declarative sentence is declaring something.

INTERROGATIVES
     The second sentence is asking a question: did you eat the last cookie? This is a sentence that is used to obtain some sort of information. It is called an interrogative.
Interrogative: a sentence type used to obtain information.
Interrogative questions always end in a question mark, and therefore are easy to spot. Just think: a police officer interrogates in order to obtain information (in this case, about who ate the last cookie). However, English has a few different types of interrogatives depending on the amount of information needed, and each one has special grammar rules that indicate what type of interrogative is being used. Down the rabbit hole we go!

YES-NO QUESTIONS
     Grammarians, in their infinite wisdom, have endeavored to at least make the majority of labels for grammar self-explanatory. A yes-no question is (drum roll please….) an interrogative in which the speaker already knows most of the information and simply needs a yes or no answer.
Yes-No Question: a type of interrogative sentence that is meant to be answered with yes or no.
     And while we are all on the same page here that sometimes the sentence needs to be moved around when changed into a yes-no question, we have to cover the specifics so I don’t get an email from someone telling me that they failed their interrogative discourse finals because I didn’t provide all the information.

A yes-no question is changed in one of two ways, depending on if the sentence has a helping verb or not. If you recall, a helping verb is a verb that “helps out” the main verb in a clause. For example:
Those boys were cheating on the test.
     Were is the helping verb here. If changed into a yes-no question, it would read:
Were those boys cheating on the test?
In the yes-no form, the helping verb switches spots with the subject noun phrase.

In the case of “you ate the last cookie”, there is no helping verb. In that case, some version of do is added to the beginning, and the verb reverts to its base form. So,
You ate the last cookie.
Morphs into:
Did you eat the last cookie?
Essentially, the main verb “hands over” its tense and number to do.

WH- QUESTIONS
     Any question that has who, whom, whose, what, which, where, when, why, or how is called a wh- question. These questions are not meant to be answered with a simple yes or no, but rather are seeking details about something. This form of question can get a bit dicey as far as correct framing goes.
Wh- Question: a question that seeks a specific type of information.
     If you are questioning the subject noun phrase, all you have to do is tag an interrogative in the subject position.
Who is making that racket?
However, if you are questioning something other than the subject, the you have to also reverse the subject and the verb.
How can I help you?
One last thing: just like with yes-no questions, if the sentence doesn’t have a helping verb, add the appropriate version of do and transfer all number and tense from the main verb onto do.
Why did she laugh?

TAG QUESTIONS
     Tag questions are mostly about affirmation, conversation, and reassurance. They are like the rhetorical question’s insecure, gossipy cousin. They always appear at the end of sentences, have some version of do in them, and a pronoun.
Tag Question: an interrogative attached to the end of a declarative sentence.
     Tag questions are sentences such as:
Codee had another baby, didn’t she?
The Broncos aren’t doing well this year, are they?
Tag questions’ pronouns must always agree with the subject of the sentence, and do must also be appropriately conjugated. One thing to notice is that if the statement is negative, then the tag question must be affirmative, and vice-versa.

ECHO QUESTIONS/ DECLARATIVE QUESTIONS
     This is another conversation technique, as well as a way to express surprise or disbelief.
Echo question/declarative question: an interrogative that maintains the structure of a declarative.
     Examples of this would be:
You sold your house?
You ate the last cookie? (I would use ?!, but it’s not grammatically correct, so you will just have to assume outrage)
Echo questions are most common in comedies and in cop movies such as Dirty Harry  and Die Hard (normally used by the police chief).

EMBEDDED QUESTIONS
     The last type of interrogative is called an embedded question. These are questions that look like declaratives in their form and punctuation.
Embedded question: a question inserted in a main clause.
     Examples of embedded questions would be:
I wonder if Bruce ate the last cookie.
He doesn’t know whether he paid the utilities.
I can’t remember when we were supposed to meet.
I don’t know how I will survive another semester.
Because we have been taught that interrogatives and question marks go hand-in-hand, these sentences don’t look like interrogatives. A little thought, however, shows that these sentences still contain inquiries. If it is a yes-no question, the words to look for are if or whether. If the question is a wh- question, then the appropriate wh- word will be inserted. Honestly though, all of the above examples denote missing information, even if they are in declarative form. Now, if a teacher tries to tell the classroom that all interrogatives are marked by ?, you can be the smart kid who gets to correct the teacher. Proceed at your own risk.

IMPERATIVES
     Now that we have navigated the minefield that is interrogatives in all of their glorious forms, we can get back to easier discourse functions. Imperatives are the bossy kids of the group.
Imperative: a sentence type used to give orders.
     Imperatives can be used in many forms. They can be a call to action, a direct order, or any number of other uses. Essentially, they are designed to tell a person that the speaker wants a change in the listener’s/reader’s/character’s actions or mental state.
By their very nature, imperatives are always directed at you, whether singular or plural. Because of that, imperatives don’t need to have the actual word you in there, as it is already implied. “Feed the dog” is the same as “You feed the dog”.
Imperatives can either have a period or an exclamation mark, depending on the force and intended effect of the command. It is also appropriate to put I–request statements in front of imperatives to soften them, such as “I wish you wouldn’t chew with your mouth open.” Imperatives can range from that to a direct demand such as “Get out of the way!” depending on the situation.

EXCLAMATIVES
     Exclamatives, while they may have an exclamation mark, are a bit more complex in their actual definition.
Exclamative: a sentence used to express feeling with added emphasis
While an exclamative sentence is used to exclaim a statement, not every sentence with an exclamation mark is exclamative. Normally, exclamative sentences have an inverted word order, and how or what at the beginning of the sentence. So, a declarative sentence would say:
That is a beautiful painting.
An exclamatory sentence would say:
What a beautiful painting that is!
In other words, if it sounds like something an old person would say, or something you would say to a child, it’s probably exclamatory.

Voice

Voice in grammar is a bit different from the every day use of the word voice, meaning the sounds we make with our vocal chords. Instead, this has to do with the arrangement of words in a noun phrase. It is something that is fairly easy to spot, but a bit difficult to define.

Voice: the quality of a verb that indicates whether the subject acts or is acted upon.

The most commonly used voice is active voice. Most sentences are constructed with the active voice.
Active Voice: a clause or sentence that follows the form of action + doer + receiver.
     For example, “I ate the last slice of pizza” follows the typical subject/verb/object form (I/ate/pizza). However, there is another way to construct clauses or sentences, and that is the passive voice.
Passive Voice: a clause or sentence that follows the form of receiver + action + doer.
     Here’s the trick though: one cannot simply change the order of words to switch a sentence from active to passive voice. “I ate the last slice of pizza” and “The last slice of pizza ate me” are two wildly different sentences, and also still in active voice. Instead, a word (or words) has to be inserted that tells the reader or listener that, while the order of the sentence is changed, it still means the same thing. In order to change the first sentence from active to passive, I would have to say “The last slice of pizza was eaten by me.” In other words, we have to use some past version of the verb to be and the word by in order to not give people nightmares about sentient pizza slices devouring them.

Although it may seem a bit redundant to have two voices that are expressing the same thing, just in a different order, the passive voice does have its uses. I could say “the Patriots defeated the Broncos”,  but I could also say “the Broncos were defeated by the Patriots.” While both are correct, I want to draw attention to my poor Broncos, and therefore chose to give them prominence in the sentence.
Also, if we don’t want to assign blame or don’t know who the actual doer of the sentence is, we can use what is called a truncated passive.
Truncated Passive: a passive voice sentence that does not have the doer of the sentence.
     Continuing with our pizza story, then, if I knew who ate the last slice of pizza but didn’t want to get into a denial argument, or if I truly didn’t know who did, I could say “the last slice of pizza was eaten”. Truncated passive sentences are easy to spot because they don’t have the word by in them. A sentence like this could not be constructed in active voice (ate the last slice of pizza), so passive voice comes in to save the day. Also, sometimes we already know who the doer is, so we can save our precious actual voices by skipping a couple of words and using passive voice. For example, “the mail was delivered already”. Unless you live somewhere very strange, we can assume that the mail was delivered by the mailman, and therefore can use a truncated passive sentence to cut out the obvious.

That’s all for now, folks. Don’t be afraid to go out there armed with your new voice definitions, and next time someone calls you passive-aggressive, be sure to use passive voice just to really be a snob about it.

Negation

Negation, if we want to get technical, is the opposite of a positive, known in grammar-speak as an affirmative. Negation is essential in any language. Otherwise, how would we have opposites day?

Negation: the reversal in meaning of the affirmative

Of course, because this is a grammar site, I can’t just leave it at that. Negations come in many lexical categories, and you can bet that we are going to cover all of them.

VERB NEGATION
Verb negation is (drum roll please) negating a verb.
Verb negation: expressing negation by combining a negative word with a verb
The most common way to negate a verb is to use the word not before the verb.
My pizza has not arrived.
My coworker did not show up on time.
You may not eat my last cookie!
However, that trick does not always work. How about “My package arrives at three”? You can’t say “My package not arrive at three.” In this case, you have to use the word does before not. The reason for this is that not must have a helping verb. If none exists in the sentence or phrase, one must be inserted; in this case, the word does, or some form of contraction, such as doesn’t, didn’t, etc.

NEGATION OF INDEFINITES
Just in case you don’t remember, an indefinite is a word such as somebody, someone, somewhere, etc. In order to negate an indefinite, just change some to no. Nobody, no one, nowhere, etc.

NOUN NEGATION
Noun negation can be accomplished in one of two ways: creating a verb negation or negating the noun. For the noun, just add no before the noun in question. Both mean the same. For example, you can say “I have no pizza.” You can also use a verb negation to create a noun negation. In that case, you would say, “I don’t have any pizza.”

ADJECTIVE NEGATION
Adjective negation is probably the simplest: simply add not before the adjective.
He is not attractive.
She is not happy.

ADVERB NEGATION
The other way to introduce a negative is by an adverb negation. Essentially, add a prefix on to an adjective and turn it into a negative adverb. The most common prefix is -un such as unattractive or unhappy. However, this is not always the case. The prefix -in is also very common, such as inhumane. Essentially, it’s a touch-and-go scenario, with a strong possibility of the correct prefix being -un.

COMPOUND NEGATION
Compounds of constituents are the other easiest negation. Instead of using either/or, such as “I will pick either the red or the blue dress”, create a negation by saying “I will pick neither the red nor the blue dress”.

Well, that’s all for now, folks. Stay tuned!

Particles

I felt a Chuck Norris meme appropriate for this posting, as particles can be difficult to separate from prepositions. In fact, prepositions and particles often occupy the same space in a sentence.
Particle: the second portion of a two-part transitive verb.
At first glance, it would seem very difficult to tell a particle apart from a preposition:
Daniel skipped down the boardwalk.
Daniel turned down the delicious pizza.
While they appear both the same, there is a simple trick to figuring out whether we are dealing with a preposition or a particle: take the phrase in question and try to put it at the front of the sentence. For example, “Down the sidewalk Daniel skipped”, while formal, is still grammatically correct. But what about if we try it with the second sentence? “Down the delicious pizza Daniel turned.” Nope, this makes no sense. In other words, while being very similar, particles are easy to spot as long as you have this trick up your sleeve. Maybe I didn’t need a Chuck Norris meme, after all.

Prepositional Phrases

Here we go again. Just as the other words covered so far, prepositions also have their own phrases. Prepositions always occur with a noun phrase or pronoun phrase. Prepositional phrases, then, are phrases with a preposition in front, followed by a noun or pronoun.
Prepositional phrase: a phrase consisting of a preposition followed by a noun or pronoun phrase.
The purpose of a prepositional phrase is to modify, or add to, a relating portion of the sentence. Prepositional phrases can modify noun phrases or verb phrases. If it modifies a noun phrase, it is said to have an adjectival function, because like an adjective, it is modifying a noun.
The waitress in the back is taking forever.
If a prepositional phrase is adding to a verb, then it is called an adverbial phrase, as it is modifying a verb, just like an adverb does.
I went to sleep at midnight.
Remember also that prepositional phrases are not always after the verb or noun they are modifying. For example, I could say “at midnight I went to sleep”, and the first two words would still be a prepositional phrase, as they are still modifying the verb phrase.

One other rule to remember is this: according to standard English, a sentence should never be ended with a preposition. The preposition must always be next to the noun it is tied to. For example, “Do I know the girl you were fighting with?” is not grammatically correct. The correct form would be, “Do I know the girl with whom you were fighting?” This is called a deferred preposition.
Deferred preposition: a preposition that has been separated from its noun.
While this sounds a bit old fashioned and is not used often in conversational English, it is still standard grammar. In other words, don’t come crying to me when your teacher/professor marks you down for this, because I did warn you.

Prepositions

Prepositions are like love: hard to define, but you know when you see it. Essentially, prepositions tell us how a noun phrase interacts with the rest of a sentence.
Preposition: a word that shows the relationship of a noun phrase to other noun phrases in a sentence.
For example:
The cat jumped on the table.
I went to the movies with my friends.
My brother chugs energy drinks in the morning.
I could devote a very, very long blog to all of the ways that prepositions indicate the relationships between noun phrases. Things like accompaniment (I went to the movies with my friends), direction (the cat jumped on the table), time (my brother chugs energy drinks in the morning), but again, prepositions are fairly easy to spot. Also, the same preposition can mean many different things depending on the context:
Bring the money at midnight. (time)
I am at my house. (location)
She looked at the adorable dog (direction)
Most native English speakers naturally understand which prepositions to use, and for what. The bottom line is this: how is one noun or noun phrase interacting with another noun phrase? The answer will be the preposition.

Adverb Phrases

Hopefully, you are seeing a pattern in types of words and their accompanying phrases by now. Also, you may have guessed that an adverb phrase is a phrase constructed around an adverb. If so, another gold star for you!
Adverb phrase: a phrase with an adverb at its head
     Adverbs and adjectives share many commonalities, and this carries into their phrases, as well. Many of the modifiers used for adjectives are used for adverbs. In particular, intensifiers are often used in both adjective and adverb phrases.
John walks really slow.
int    adv
In addition, adverb phrases are commonly formed with complements, just like adjective phrases. These are called (wait for it) adverb complements.
Adverb complement: an element following an adverb phrase that completes the meaning of the adverb.
     For example, “Mary fell harder than a box of bricks.” Harder is the adverb, but box of bricks completes the meaning of the adverb.

Adverbs

     Adverbs are a tricky category, because they cross several categories of words. The simplest way to phrase an adverb is that it helps describe a verb, just as adjectives do for nouns. An adverb adds to a verb. However, it can add to adjectives, as well.
Adverb: a word that typically describes verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
     Common adverbs are those of time, place, and manner. They are the where, when, and how of verbs.
She ran to the store. (where)
I will see my boyfriend tomorrow. (when)
He quickly ran from the dog
Remember how I said that intensifiers modified adjectives? Well, they can modify adverbs, too, which makes them both adjectives and adverbs, depending on how they are used.
The telemarketer hung up quite rudely.
She texted back very quickly.
Another type of adverb is one that kicks off a whole sentence, appropriately named a sentence adverb.
Sentence adverb: a verb that describes an entire sentence by injecting commentary at the beginning of the sentence.
     Common adverbs include unfortunately, however, and nevertheless. These are easy to identify simply because they start of a whole sentence and have a comma directly after.

Adjective Phrases

If you guessed that and adjective phrase is a phrase in which an adjective serves as the head of a phrase, congratulations! You get a gold star for the day. You should probably still finish reading this, though, because it’s a bit more complicated than that.
Adjective phrase: a phrase with an adjective as its head.
     Adjective phrases are often accompanied by intensifiers, such as, “I am very hangry.” They can be a subject complement or an object complement. Sometimes, they can be formed by completing an adjective as well, such as “I am afraid to run.” Even though this doesn’t seem like it should be in the adjective category, the reason it is is because these portions “finish off” whatever the adjective was trying to state. These are called adjective complements.
Adjective complement: an element following an adjective phrase that completes the meaning of the adjective phrase.
     One other thing to remember about adjective phrases is that they can be compounded almost indefinitely, as can adjective complements.
That’s all for this one, folks! Have fun, and go watch GOT with the extra time you have because of this mercifully short posting.