EXERCISES
ABOUT SENTENCES
A.
Which of the following groups of words are sentences, and which are not? Put a
capital letter at the beginning and a full stop at the end of the examples you
think are complete sentences.
1.
closed the door
2.
the little girls sang beautifully
3.
had a pain in her back
4.
big grey wooly
5.
she went into the garden
6.
like cake tomorrow
7.
we saw her last week
8.
was crying bitterly in her bedroom
9.
big and very strong
10.
the teacher was very cross
11.
the boys laughed
12.
laughed out loud
13.
for breakfast every day
14.
your nice new is
15.
he lost his lovely new watch
16.
she opened the
17.
climbed up the hill
18.
the door opened
B.
Decide whether the following sentences are declarative, interrogative,
imperative, exclamatory or optative, and mark them ‘Dec’, ‘Int’, ‘Imp’, ‘Exc’,
and ‘Opt’ as appropriate.
1.
He is leaving tomorrow.
2.
Are you coming with us?
3.
Don’t move!
4.
God bless this ship and all who sail in her.
5.
How much does it cost?
6.
There’s been a nasty accident in Oxford Street.
7.
Who were you speaking to just now?
8.
The birds flew the nest.
9.
May I go to the party?
10.
May the best man win.
11.
Peter cut his foot on a sharp stone.
12.
I ought to leave now.
13.
May I leave now?
14.
Don’t leave yet.
15.
What a silly idea!
16.
What is the highest mountain in the world?
17.
Shut the door!
18.
I was at a meeting all morning.
19.Do
have some more wine?
20.
Would you like some more wine?
21.
How did you get here so soon?
22.
How right you are!
C.
Decide whether the following sentences should end with a full stop, a question
mark or an exclamation mark, and add the appropriate punctuation mark to the
end of the sentence.
1.
When did you last see her
2.
I don’t know what to do
3.
Please come in
4.
I don’t really like cheese
5.
Do you like cheese
6.
I absolutely hate cheese
7.
Down with all traitors to the party
8.
Why did she get so upset about it
9.
May I say something
10.
Long live rock’n’roll
11.
What an awful woman she is
12.
How stupid I’ve been
13.
Doesn’t he live somewhere near here
14.
May you always be a credit to your parents
15.
Should I say something to hear about it
16.
How could you not see that you were being fooled
17.
That’s not what I meant to do
18.
How I wish I had never ever gone there
19.
It doesn’t seem likely that he’ll come now
20.
There’s no speed limit on this stretch of road
KEY
A
The
following examples are complete sentences: 2, 5, 7, 10, 11, 15, and 18.
B
1.Dec 2.Int 3.Imp 4.Opt 5.Int 6.Dec 7.Int 8.Dec 9.Int 10.Opt 11.Dec 12.Dec 13.Int
14.Imp 15.Exc 16.Int 17.Imp 18.Dec 19.Imp 20.Int 21.Int 22.Exc
C
1.? 2. ./! 3.
. 4. . 5. ? 6. . / ! 7. ! 8.
? 9. ? 10. ! 11. ! 12. ! 13.
?
14.
. / ! 15. ? 16. ? 17. . / ! 18. ! 19.
. 20. .
