Constructing sentences with opposition in English. How sentences are constructed in English

Is it possible to build such an understandable system that would allow you to easily construct sentences in English and quickly understand all tense forms? Let's get a look.

First you need to figure out what generally accepted standards exist, and how you can avoid getting lost in the apparent complexity while learning English.

If we look in more detail at the sentence structure in English language, then it becomes obvious that in order to quickly learn to express yourself concisely and clearly, you just need to train yourself to recognize the subject (who is doing?) and the predicate (what is doing?) in an English sentence.

In most cases, the subject comes before the predicate in sentences. The only exceptions are interrogative sentences. But in any case, you need to start simple. This way, you can easily learn how to write sentences in English.

Simplicity is the key to success

Let's start with the simplest. This will be the base from which you will need to build in the future. Understanding it will greatly simplify the work of automating the construction of sentences in our heads on the fly.

It is worth knowing that English sentences, unlike Russian ones, are characterized by simplicity, conciseness and brevity. Perhaps this is due to the English mentality, but that’s not the point now.

Long and very complex sentences You can still find it in English. They appear in legal texts or in fiction, i.e. where appropriate. However, in live communication, long sentences are extremely rare. But to start, you need to start from the simple.

Let's find out what a simple sentence is in English. Any sentence is constructed in order to describe the real life situation as clearly as possible.

In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to use words to describe the current situation and connect them so that the meaning is conveyed as succinctly as possible. If you manage to convey the meaning correctly, then in the head of the person to whom the information is transmitted you will get an image of the same picture.

In Russian, words are connected using endings. However, in English the situation is completely different; there is no change in multiple endings.

On the one hand, this simplifies the process of memorizing and studying, and on the other, it requires maximum clarity in sentence construction and correct use prepositions.

Golden Rule

So, let's define the first and most important rule - direct word order! First it says who is doing it, then what it is doing. Any variations are available in Russian, for example:

• The boy catches fish.
• A boy catches fish.
• A boy catches a fish.
• A boy is fishing.

In English there is always only one word order - “A boy is catching some fish”.
Remember this Golden Rule, which is where you should start when learning English. Everything is tied to verbs (simple predicates). They will, of course, be in some form of one of the English tenses (from here you can immediately understand how to use the tenses), three moods and two voices. For beginners, the main thing is to understand the basics:

In English, sentence structure always follows a certain structure:

• Subject (who/what?),
• verb (what does it do?),
• object (who/what? addition),
• place (where?),
• time (when?).

For example: “I like to walk with my dog ​​in the park in the evening.”

• like to walk;
• with my dog;
• in the park;
• in the evening.

Time

Many people who begin to learn a language are dizzy from the endless variety of temporary forms. If we take them all into account, we get 16. This is explained by the fact that the tense system is clearly different from the one used in the Russian language. Of course there is also general points, but the main trump card of the English times system is strict order, logic, and obedience to the laws of grammar and logic.

But times are not as scary as they are made out to be. If you master at least the six most consumed ones, you will be able to feel confident in almost any communication situation - this is Present Simple, Past Simple, Future Simple, Present Continuous, Past Continuous, And Present Perfect.
Example:

• I go to work every day. - Present Simple (what happens regularly).
• I went to work yesterday. — Past Simple (statement of a fact in the past).
• I will go to work tomorrow. - Future Simple (statement of a fact in the future).
• I am going to work now. - Present Continuous (what is happening now).
• I was going to work when you called me. - Past Continuous (what happened at a certain point in time in the past).
• I have already gone to work. - Present Perfect (it is not known when the action took place, but there is its result in the present).

What is most important is the need to remember that each group of tenses has similar characteristics and norms of formation of the semantic verb, as well as principles of use, and this is the key to quickly mastering all tenses.

Once you can draw parallels and feel the differences, you can use all tenses without much difficulty. Therefore, to begin with, just try to remember how English sentences of the Simple group are constructed, starting with Present. It is extremely convenient to learn and remember grammatical tenses by placing them in a table.

Easy-to-read tense tables are present in all textbooks used at EnglishDom.

So, don't be afraid of any difficulties. Everything starts simple, and everything ingenious is simple too. Having understood the basic principles of sentence construction, you can further adapt and train all tenses, moods and voices.

The main thing is that you can’t grab onto everything at once. Only after you have fully grasped one rule, move on to another. Repeat what you've learned sometimes so you don't forget. But what should never be forgotten is basic principles construction English sentences. So, it’s always easy to start - train your skills on simple sentences, then, as you understand, make them more complex.

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Word order in English differs significantly from our word order. In the Russian language, due to the presence of many endings, there is no word order special significance, the meaning will be the same, you can only focus the interlocutor’s attention on a certain fact. For example:

A kitten ran into me yesterday afternoon
A kitten ran into me yesterday afternoon
Yesterday afternoon a kitten ran into me

We are accustomed to such freedom of speech and transfer it to the English language. However, in English this is done completely prohibited, everyone must stand in their place. Changing the word order usually completely changes the meaning of the sentence:

Anya hit Dima
Anya hit Dima

Dima hit Anya
Dima hit Anya

The main feature of sentences in English is the fixed word order. No matter how we would like to express our thoughts, we must always adhere to the following word order scheme in an English sentence:

1. (or just a verb).
2. – is located after the predicate, there may be several.
3. – can come at the beginning before the subject or at the very end.
4. – can be in any part of a sentence, thereby making it difficult to understand.

To make it clearer and clearer, this diagram can be represented as follows:

Maybe, this scheme It may seem incomprehensible to you, but everything is simple here:
Subject- subject and predicate(verb) - predicate(verb) are the basis of the English sentence, they are present in 99 percent of phrases, we can say that it is " backbone" of any sentence. Also after the predicate it can go addition- object. Therefore, if a sentence consists of three words and is not connected by any, then we can say with confidence that the first word is the subject, the second is the predicate, and the third is the complement. To make it clearer, look at the examples and the 2-minute video below:

We (subject) do (predicate) our work (object)
We do our job

They faced problems
They faced (many) problems

If you liked the video tutorial, subscribe to this author’s channel -.

After this, looking at the diagram again, it should be clear that circumstance can be at the beginning of a sentence or at the end (less often in the middle):

We do our work with pleasure
We do our work with pleasure

At the moment I cannot talk
At present I can not talk

WITH definition the situation is a little more complicated; more precisely, it complicates the definition of the members of the sentence. A definition can appear in any part of a sentence and usually comes before or after the word being defined (usually a noun).

What else do you need to know so as not to get confused?

As always in the English language, there are exceptions to everything and everywhere. Here are the main exceptions you may encounter:

• Formation of the interrogative form

Forming a question slightly violates the usual sentence structure, but there is nothing complicated here, as a rule, temporary auxiliary is placed at the very beginning of the sentence. Look for yourself, in general the scheme of the proposal is the same:

I am an engineer
I am an engineer
Am I'm an engineer?
I am an engineer?

I can speak English
I speak English/I can speak English
Can I speak English
I speak English? /I can speak English?

• Improving sentence rhythm

This usually occurs in songs. You could even say that many of the songs are written grammatically incorrectly. The performer’s goal is usually to “get into” the rhythm and convey the meaning, sometimes the same applies to poetry and fairy tales (not adapted).

The main thing you need to remember is that changing the location of words in an English sentence leads to a change in its meaning. All this is, of course, theory and it may seem complicated, but after a little practice and studying the simplest tense forms of the English language, the correct construction of sentences will begin to be achieved on an intuitive level.

For success in mastering the English language, it is extremely important to understand its peculiarities of the arrangement of words and their order in sentences. It probably seems to you that this is not very simple and that to master their structure you need to memorize large number poorly understood rules. Some theoretical knowledge, of course, are necessary, but everything can be explained in an accessible and easily understandable manner. We decided to present the topic of constructing English sentences in the most accessible way possible and tried to make familiarization with this material interesting. Let's get started.

Classification of sentence members.

First of all, it is necessary to understand which components consists of a correctly constructed sentence, that is, to clarify the question of which parts of the sentence are necessary for writing or pronouncing it. As you probably guess, any written or spoken sentence must carry a semantic load, and in order to convey it with maximum accuracy, a necessary condition the presence of the main and ensuring additional information, not the main members. At a minimum, a sentence written in English must involve two main ones, represented by the subject and the predicate. It is impossible to do without these fundamental components, so we need to look at them more closely.

Members of the sentence

Subject

The subject is one of the most important components of a sentence, which, answering questions such as “who?” and “what?”, draws the main participant. This mission can be performed by pronouns or nouns, as well as proper names. One of the most important features in English it is believed that the location of a word within a sentence determines it functional features. According to the rule, the subject is located before the other main participant in the process, called the predicate.

Predicate

The predicate is another basic or main member that forms the foundation and is responsible for information about the action taking place. The questions that are answered are formulated as “what does it do?” or “what are they doing?” This responsibility is entrusted to verbs. Various designs, used to show grammatical tenses, may require the addition of an auxiliary verb. A simple sentence can consist of a subject and a predicate, with the latter necessarily located later than the first. To decorate the base with details, the participation of other members will be needed.

Addition

An addition is a non-main member of a sentence that answers questions in all cases except the nominative. In sentences they are located after the predicates. There is an additional division: additions that answer the questions “what?” and “who?”, which corresponds to accusative case, are classified as direct, and all the rest are classified as indirect.

Definition

Definitions are words that appear immediately before subjects or objects and provide answers to types of questions such as “which?” or “whose?”, reveal their qualities.

Circumstance

Circumstances can find a place at the beginning and end of sentences. Sometimes they can squeeze between the main members. They tell how, why, where or when the described action happened or is happening.

For greater clarity, we will illustrate everything using examples.

Examples of subjects expressed by nouns:

A snake – snakes;

A musician – musicians;

A building – buildings.

The nouns on the left are singular, and the nouns on the right are plural.

It should be remembered that the presence of articles introduces some additional difficulties and the indefinite article before nouns in plural it can not be.

We have already mentioned that it is expressed by a verb and can be of two types:

• Auxiliary. This part of speechused to express time.And this is very important point if necessarydraw upsentences in English. Auxiliary verb toBut it does not have such a meaning in itself and is not translated into Russian in any way. However, his presence is necessary if the temporary form requires it.

Example:

ForPresent Simple– do / does;

ForPast Perfect – had;

For Future Continuous– will be.

• Main or semantic verb. It is used to indicate the actions of the subject.

Example:

Sheruns. ​

Wewent. ​

Definition

Can be represented by the most in different parts speech. Let's look at the most popular options:

Adjective

Nice- Cute;

Brave- brave.

Participle

Sold– sold;

Crying- crying.

Participial

madeofplastic – mademade of plastic;

laughingout loud –loudlaughing.

Numerals

First- first;

Thirty- thirty.

Nouns in the possessive case, etc.

Nick's- Nika;

Diana's- Diana.

You're probably interestedhow to build sentences in Englishwith the definition, and what place it occupies in it. This part of speech can come before the subject or before the object. Let's look at examples to make the scheme of this sentence clear.

1. Herwavyhairissobeautiful. – Her wavy hair is so beautiful.

2. Ireadagreatbook. – I read a wonderful book.

It should be noted thathow to construct a sentence in English, if the definition is expressed by a participial phrase. In this case, it always comes after the subject or object.

For example:

The girl speaking on stage is my sister.​

The girl performing on stage is my sister.

Addition

Always comes after the predicate. There are two types of add-ons:

1. Direct(answering questions in the accusative case):

Isawher. ​

I saw her.

2. Indirect(other):

We are proud of you.​

We are proud of you.

If both additions occur in a sentence at once, then the direct one always comes first, and only after it comes the indirect one.

Circumstance

It denotes place, time, cause, etc.

The circumstance is expressed:

Adverb (today, slowly);

Noun with preposition (inParis, behindthescenes).

It is directly related to the predicate, but can appear at the beginning of a sentence or at its end.

So, we have looked at the components of English sentences.HenceIt's time to move on to the next section. It is here that we will answer the question: “How to make English sentences correctly?" Well, let's get started.

How sentences are built in English: English sentence structure

It is difficult to imagine a student who has never thought abouthow to make sentences in English. And most often this thought caused stupor. We decided to tell you a simple way to understandhow to write sentences in English. This means that after a while you will be able to compose the text yourself. Separately, it should be noted that at the end of the article we have prepared exercises for you to test your knowledge. After going through them, you will be able to find out for yourself whether you have mastered the material and whether you can tellHow is an English sentence constructed?And we move on to the basic rules.

How to write sentences in English?For that, To answer this question, you should familiarize yourself with the structure of English sentences. Namely, with the order of words in them. For example, in Russian we can say the following options: I love you very much, I love you very much, I love you very much. AHow to writeBy-Englishofferwith these words?Iloveyouverymuch. This way and only this way. In English, words do not change places, but always remain in a certain order. In this regard, this language is much simpler than ours. Meanwhile, we found the first answer to the questionhow to build sentences in English. And it consists in the fact that they are built according to a scheme specified by the rules. This means it’s time to study and remember these schemes. Go.

How to write a sentence in Englishin the affirmative

We have already said that all expressions and sentences are constructed according to a certain scheme. Below we will give an exampleEnglishhow to make a proposalsimple plan and affirmative form.

The standard diagram looks like this:

Subject + predicate + addition + circumstance

My little sister will visit me in three days.

However, sometimes the adverbial is at the beginning of the word and then the diagram looks like this:

Circumstance+ subject +predicate+ addition.

YesterdayIlearnedEnglishwords.

Below we provide examples of howhow to write a sentence in English correctlyin an affirmative form.

1. Yesterday I bought a Lego construction set to my nephew.

2. We'll go home after training.

3. He is trying to find this spelling rule.

4. I have no idea how to learn to play the guitar.

How to write a sentence in Englishin a negative form

In order to turn a statement into a negation, you should use a particlenotto the auxiliary verb. By the way, it is the auxiliary verb that is a prerequisite for this category of sentences. In all other respects, the scheme is identical to the first option:

Subject + auxiliary verb withnot+ main verb + object + adverbial.

My little sister willnotvisit me in three days.

Or

Circumstance+ subject + auxiliary verb + main verb + object. in interrogative form

The word order in a simple question remains the same, only the auxiliary verb comes first. Accordingly, the scheme of such a proposal:

Auxiliary verb + subject + semantic verb + object + adverbial.

Did they go fishing the day before yesterday? -Theywentonfishingday before yesterday?

Many people are probably interested inhow to make a sentence in English from wordswhen, whatetc. You probably know that these words appear in a number of interrogative sentences. So, they are put in first place, leaving the rest unchanged. As a result, we get the following questions:

Whatdoyouthinkaboutourpresident?

When did she move to her parents?

If we are dealing with dividing questions, then the sentence looks like this:

They will not agree with their terms, will they?

As you can see, in this version it is worth moving away from the usual scheme negative sentences. Dividing questions consist of an affirmation or denial in the first part and a short answer in the second.

We have looked at the options for forming sentences in English and we hope we have answered all your questions. As you can see, this topic turned out to be easier than you thought. All we can do is wish you good luck in mastering the English language and remind you that below we have prepared exercises for you to do on your own.

Exercises for consolidation

1. Make up three affirmative sentences in which the circumstance comes first.

_______

_____________________________________________________________________

2. Make up sentences using the combinations of words below:

onSaturday night, didn't see, at the party, you, I

____________________________________________________

aletter to her parents, Ann, writes, every week

____________________________________________________

hisname, after a few minutes, I, remembered

____________________________________________________

3. Put the sentences in interrogative and negative forms:

You have brought something for us.

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

There are some tall trees in front of their house.

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

There are some good book shops in our district.

______________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

Word order in English subordinated to a clear diagram (in the picture). Substitute words there instead of squares and get the correct word order. The scheme is simple and you can figure it out in literally 15 minutes. For better understanding, there are examples of English sentences with translation into Russian.

Word order in an English sentence, construction scheme.

The standard English sentence is built according to such a scheme:

The sentence shown in the figure is called narrative or, which is the same, affirmative. An affirmative sentence is when someone did something and we talk about it.

At the first place The subject in the sentence is the one who performs the action. In the diagram and in the examples, the subject is highlighted in red. The subject can be a noun (mom, cat, apple, work, etc.) or a pronoun (I, you, he, etc.). The subject may also contain several adjectives used as modifiers (fast cat, red apple, etc.).

In second place there is always a predicate. The predicate is the action itself. In the diagram and in the examples, the predicate is highlighted in blue. It is expressed by a verb (to go, look, think, etc.)

After the predicate there is one or more additions. The object is again a noun or pronoun.

And at the end of the sentence there are circumstances of place and time. They show where and when the action took place. As a rule, first come the words that answer the question “Where?”, and then the words that answer the question “When?”.

Examples of affirmative sentences:

What if there is no subject?

In the Russian language, it is quite common to make utterances in which either the subject, or the predicate, or both are missing. For example:

In English the predicate is obligatory. And in such cases, the verb to be (is) is used as a predicate. For example:

They are students.
They are students.

That is, the English, instead of “They are students,” say “They are students,” and instead of “This is a tree,” they say, “This is a tree.” Here “are” and “is” are forms of the verb to be. This verb, unlike most others English verbs, varies by person. You can see all forms of the verb to be.

If a Russian sentence lacks both a subject and a predicate, then when translated into English, “It is” is placed at the beginning of the sentence. For example:

Cold.
It is cold.

Order of adjectives.

It happens that the supplement contains a large number of adjectives For example:

I bought a large beautiful and very comfortable sofa.

Here is the standard word order in which adjectives are arranged in an English sentence:

1) adjectives describing your impression of the object (good, beautiful, excellent...)

2) size (large, small...)

3) age (new, old...)

5) origin (Italian, German...)

6) the material from which it is made (metal, leather...)

7) what is it intended for (office, computer...)

For example:

Words that have a special place in a sentence.

If the sentence contains the words:

Showing the frequency of the action (often, never, sometimes, always…)

Then these words must be placed before the semantic verb or after the verb to be or, in the case of a compound verb, after the first verb. For example:

He often goes to the gym.
He often goes to the gym.

He is often tired after work.
He is often tired after work(be tired - to be tired)

You must never do it again.
You will never do this again.

Word order in negative and interrogative English sentences.

I talked about affirmative sentences. Everything is simple with them. But in order to speak English at least somehow, you need to be able to construct negative statements and ask questions. In a negative English sentence, the word order is almost the same, but the questions are constructed according to a slightly different pattern.

Here's a picture that shows all three types of sentences:

The construction of sentences in English is very different from Russian. Firstly, the English language has a defined order of words in a sentence; secondly, to construct a sentence, the presence of a subject and predicate is required. Later in the article we will look at examples of sentence construction and some features.

From the article you will learn:

Constructing sentences in English: video

Let's start discussing the rules of constructing sentences in English with a video lesson.

Below you will find example sentences in English and you can check how well you understand the lesson.

Constructing sentences in English: examples

For example, in Russian we say:

This is a wonderful book. This boy is tall.

These sentences are constructed correctly, but they lack a verb that would serve as a predicate. In these sentences the predicate is a compound nominal. Certain linking verbs appear in English: to be and to have. Therefore, these sentences are translated as follows:

It is a wonderful book. This boy is tall.

If we literally translate the resulting sentences into Russian, they will sound like “This is a wonderful book” and “This boy is tall.” In Russian, we don’t say “the boy is big,” we say “the boy is big,” but the word “is” is still implied. If you are constructing a simple English sentence and you do not have a full verb, check whether to be or to have should be omitted.

Fixed word order in English

Now let's talk about word order in English sentences. Russian offer can be called free. You can build it any way you want and the meaning will not be lost. But in English, rearranging words will lead to a complete change in meaning. Compare:

Masha was eating a pear. - Masha ate the pear.

Masha ate a pear. — A pear ate Masha.

In the second English version when rearranged, it turns out that the pear ate Masha, and not vice versa. The meaning has changed dramatically. In a declarative sentence, the word order is direct (the subject comes first, followed by the predicate), strictly fixed .

When constructing sentences in English, they first go subject And predicate :

The girl sings. - The girl is singing.

I tell you in the article ““ which parts of speech can serve as the subject in English.

The attribute must always come before the noun:

The beautiful girl sings. — Beautiful girl sings.

Or at the end of the sentence:

The songs were beautiful. — The songs were wonderful.

The addition comes after the grammatical stem:

The beautiful girl sings songs… or The beautiful girl sings sad songs.

A beautiful girl sings songs... or A beautiful girl sings sad songs.

Circumstances in English they can go either at the beginning , or at the end :

In the evening the beautiful girl sings sad songs … or The beautiful girl sings sad songs in the evening.

In the evening, a beautiful girl sings sad songs... or A beautiful girl sings sad songs in the evening.

There is/there are construction

The subject, like the predicate, can be expressed not only in one word, but also in entire phrases.

There are also certain constructions that change the construction of sentences in English. For example, the design there is/there are.

This construction involves the placement of words there is/there are in first place, then the subject and circumstance, which will always come at the end of the sentence.

There is a big pear-tree in my garden. — There is a big pear tree in my garden.

There are tasty fruit on the table. — There are delicious fruits on the table.

We always start translation from the end. Choice there is/there are depends on the number of the first noun that follows the construction.

There is a big plate, many kettles and an apple on the table. — There is a large plate on the table, a lot of teapots and an apple

There are new toys, a small bear and a fork in the box. — The box contains new toys, a small teddy bear and a fork

Imperative mood in English sentences

The imperative mood in English sentences coincides with the infinitive of the verb.

Run! - Run (those)!

Play! - Play!

In this case there is no subject. Such proposals are usually addressed to a second person units And plural numbers.

Show me your book! - Show (those) your book!

Come to visit us today. - Visit us today.

Forbidden form in sentences

The forbidden form is formed by adding the word Don't to the beginning of the sentence.

Don't do that! - Do not do that!

Don't stand up! - Don't get up!

The polite form is formed by adding the word “ please”.

Give me your book, please! - Give me your hand, please!