A sentence needs three things:
1. Subject: This is who or what the sentence is about. It's the person, place, thing, or idea performing the action.
* Examples: The cat, The old house, John, Happiness
2. Verb: This is the action the subject is doing.
* Examples: ran, sits, wrote, exists
3. Complete Thought: The sentence must express a complete idea. It shouldn't leave the reader hanging or needing more information.
Let's look at some examples:
* "The cat ran." This is a sentence because it has a subject ("The cat"), a verb ("ran"), and it expresses a complete thought.
* "The old house." This is NOT a sentence because it lacks a verb. It only names a subject.
* "John wrote the letter quickly." This is a sentence because it has a subject ("John"), a verb ("wrote"), and it expresses a complete thought.
* "Because it was raining." This is NOT a sentence because it lacks a subject and a complete thought. It's a dependent clause.
Important Notes:
* A sentence can be very short or very long.
* A sentence can have multiple clauses.
* A sentence must start with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark (period, question mark, exclamation point).
Here's a helpful tip: If you can answer "Who or what did what?" about a sentence, you probably have a complete sentence.
Let me know if you'd like more examples or want to explore specific sentence types!