Sentences are of different types in English Grammar. They are categorised based on their structure, purpose, behaviour, and function. According to the behaviour of the sentence they are categorised into 4 types.
- Declarative Sentence
- Interrogative Sentence
- Imperative Sentence
- Exclamatory Sentence
These 4 types of sentences behave in different manners and used in different kinds of situations to express someone’s feelings, thought or ideas.
As we know sentences are a group of words that are combined to form a meaning full expression.
These sentences are a combination of some specific words to represent a particular idea or state of mind.
Let us discuss more on the 1st type of sentence i.e. Declarative Sentence.
As the name says Declarative, from a layman concept we can understand someone is declaring or presenting his/her idea in terms of the sentence.
Declarative sentences are known as the simplest sentence in English Grammar. Sometimes we call it as simple sentence as well.
These sentences are basically statements told or represent by a person which can be true or false.
Declarative sentences are the most used sentence in day to day life in terms of conversations, writings, lectures, and speeches.
Structure of Declarative Sentence
A sentence is a group of words and those words must be placed in a proper way to provide meaning.
As we have already discussed this is the simplest sentence in English Grammar, they have one subject and one predicate.
A declarative sentence ends with a period sign.
In other words, combination of one subject, one predicate and punctuation (period sign) can be called a declarative sentence.
For eg
- I love pasta.
- Sun rises in the east.
- Sky is blue.
- Michael wrote a story.
- This puppy is cute.
In the above example statements, I, Sun, Sky , Michael , This Puppy are subjects and the rest part of the sentence is a predicate.
All the sentences have period sign at the end and are simple statements we use in day to day life.
Other sentences can have the same structure as a declarative sentence, but the punctuation varies.
In place of period sign sometimes it becomes Question mark? or Exclamation sign.!
Declarative sentences are also known as Assertive Sentence.
The assertive sentence is again categorized into two types depending on the tone or intension behind the sentence.
- Affirmative
- Negative
If we present a statement in a positive tone, then it is said to be an Affirmative Sentence.
If our statement gives a negative idea, then we call it a Negative Sentence.
The same statement can become Affirmative or Negative just changing the voice of the sentence.
- You can trek to the top of the mountain. (Affirmative)
- You cannot trek to the top of the mountain. ( Negative)
Both sentences are declarative and give an idea or opinion.
But the 1st statement is said positively while the second one gives a negative sense.
Let us see some more examples on Declarative sentence combining both Affirmative and Negative Sentence.
1. Harry is captain of our football team. (Affirmative)
2. He cannot handle the team properly. (Negative)
3. I hope she can join us tomorrow. (Affirmative)
4. Corona is a deadly virus. (Affirmative)
5. Samantha is the best student in our class. (Affirmative)
- She does not know how to sing. (Negative)
- London is the capital of England. (Affirmative)
- Tom and Zerry is the best cartoon in the world. (Affirmative)
- I do not know how to ride a bicycle. (Negative)
- Today is Tuesday. (Affirmative)