Definition of

Simple sentence

Subject and predicate

A simple sentence has a single verbal nucleus.

The term prayer comes from the Latin oratio and has several uses. For grammar , it is the smallest possible syntactic constituent that is capable of expressing a logical proposition. Therefore, it is a word or a set of words with syntactic autonomy.

A sentence is a combination of words that express a complete idea or thought , that is, it has a meaning; It is characterized by having syntactic autonomy, which means that it does not need any other structure to be and there is no other unit above it that surpasses it in rank. It should be noted that it can be distinguished stylistically by beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period.

Subject and predicate

For a sentence to exist, it must have two fundamental parts: the subject (who will perform the action and is also called the Noun Phrase -SN-) and the predicate (action that is performed and elements related to the consequences of it). . It is called the Predicate Phrase -S.

In order to distinguish each of these parts within a sentence, it can be very helpful to ask the following questions: "Who does the action?" that the SN will give us and “what does the subject do?” which will allow us to discover what the S. Pred is.

What is a simple sentence

There are various classifications of sentences, according to the syntactic structure, the speaker's attitude and other issues. Simple sentences , for example, are those that have a single verbal nucleus (that is, a single predicate).

Simple sentences are the simplest structure among all sentences, since they do not belong to any larger grammatical unit. This means that, thanks to their simplicity, they are the most used sentences in childhood and in those who are in the process of learning a language.

Writing

Simple sentences can be classified in different ways.

Classification

Simple sentences can be classified according to their meaning (there are simple declarative , imperative , interrogative , doubtful and desiderative sentences) or according to the type of predicate (simple attributive sentence or simple predicative sentence).

In the case of simple predicative sentences, they can be divided into active predicative sentences (when the subject performs the action) and passive predicative sentences (when the subject receives the action).

A new division can be made from the active predicative sentences into transitive , intransitive , reciprocal and reflexive sentences, while the passive predicative sentences can be organized into proper and improper sentences . As can be seen, sentences can always be classified according to numerous groups.

“Esteban bought a house”, “Marta traveled to Quito”, “Pedro has a black cat” y “Lucía broke the window” son algunos ejemplos de oraciones simples.

Differences between simple sentence and compound sentence

As we have already expressed, simple sentences have a solid and indivisible structure , meaning that if their different elements were taken into account separately, they would not make sense.

For their part, compound sentences are made up of different elements that in themselves have a logical meaning . Each of these parts is called a proposition and has syntactic independence (in itself they have a meaning), but not semantic independence (although they have a meaning in themselves, they depend on the others to give the complete meaning to the sentence. ).

It is worth mentioning that these propositions are linked to each other by certain coordinating links and various subjects that carry out the actions present in each of the propositions.

Finally, it is important to note that a compound sentence is not the same as a compound subject or predicate . These are: a sentence where the action is performed by more than one subject or one where one subject performs more than one action. Ex:

Compound Sentence : «Sergio said that Javier would not go down to the park this afternoon»

Compound Subject : «Antonio and María sing in the choir».

Compound Predicate : "Lautaro reads and composes music wonderfully."