Sentence Structures Simplified
Subject, Verb, Object
For a sentence or clause to be complete, it must have at least a subject and a verb. The subject
is the thing or person that the sentence is about. Often, that thing or person is performing an
action, which is the verb.
For example:
• I read.
• He plays.
• She runs.
Here, ‘I’ is the subject, and ‘read’ is the verb. Often, in English, sentences will have a subject,
verb, and object (in that order – SVO).
For example:
• I read books.
• He plays tennis.
• She runs marathons.
Here, ‘I’ is still the subject, ‘read’ is still the verb, but now ‘books’ is the object (the thing
that the subject is performing the action on). And the same for the other sentences: ‘He’ is the
subject, ‘plays’ is the verb’, and ‘tennis’ is the object; and ‘She’ is the subject, ‘runs’ is the
verb’, and ‘marathons’ is the object.
Main Clause
The main clause is the only part of a sentence that is complete, and therefore makes sense on
its own.
For example:
• Angela walked down the road, juggling China teapots.
‘Angela walked down the road’ is the main clause because it makes sense on its own, because
it has a subject (Angela) and a verb (walked).
‘juggling China teapots’ is not a main clause because it does not make sense on its own; it has
the verb ‘juggling’, but no subject.
This is the intellectual property of Ross Turner Academics
© Ross Turner 2023 | www.rossturneracademics.com
Subject, Verb, Object
For a sentence or clause to be complete, it must have at least a subject and a verb. The subject
is the thing or person that the sentence is about. Often, that thing or person is performing an
action, which is the verb.
For example:
• I read.
• He plays.
• She runs.
Here, ‘I’ is the subject, and ‘read’ is the verb. Often, in English, sentences will have a subject,
verb, and object (in that order – SVO).
For example:
• I read books.
• He plays tennis.
• She runs marathons.
Here, ‘I’ is still the subject, ‘read’ is still the verb, but now ‘books’ is the object (the thing
that the subject is performing the action on). And the same for the other sentences: ‘He’ is the
subject, ‘plays’ is the verb’, and ‘tennis’ is the object; and ‘She’ is the subject, ‘runs’ is the
verb’, and ‘marathons’ is the object.
Main Clause
The main clause is the only part of a sentence that is complete, and therefore makes sense on
its own.
For example:
• Angela walked down the road, juggling China teapots.
‘Angela walked down the road’ is the main clause because it makes sense on its own, because
it has a subject (Angela) and a verb (walked).
‘juggling China teapots’ is not a main clause because it does not make sense on its own; it has
the verb ‘juggling’, but no subject.
This is the intellectual property of Ross Turner Academics
© Ross Turner 2023 | www.rossturneracademics.com
