Language Arts - Punctuation
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Language Arts - Punctuation - Sentence Types

Sentences

There are four basic types of sentences: 


  DECLARATIVE - A declarative sentence is a statement that ends with a
      period.
	EXAMPLE: The bird landed on the roof.

  INTERROGATIVE - An interrogative sentence is a question and so it
      ends with a question mark.
	EXAMPLE: Can we eat our vegetables now?

  IMPERATIVE - An imperative sentence directs someone to do something. 
      It can end with a period or an exclamation mark.
	EXAMPLE: Wipe your feet.

  EXCLAMATORY - An exclamatory sentence expresses a strong feeling and
      it ends with an exclamation mark.
	EXAMPLE: That really stinks!
Take a look at these examples and see if you can figure out what type of sentence each one is. 

 1) Brush your teeth before going to bed.

 2) When do you plan to get up?

 3) There are five rats in the basement.

 4) That milk tastes horrible!
ANSWERS: 1) imperative, 2) interrogative, 3) declarative, 4) exclamatory

Sometimes people write sentences which are too long. Sentences which are longer than they should be are called run-on sentences. Sometimes these sentences would be better if they were divided into two or more sentences. Consider this example: 


  Jill took her dog to the park and she played fetch with her
  dog and then she saw a friend and they talked until it was
  time for Jill to go home for lunch.
This sentence should be split into several shorter sentences like this: 

  Jill took her dog to the park. She played fetch with her dog.
  Later on Jill saw a friend. She talked to her friend until
  it was time to go home for lunch.
As you can see four short sentences are better than one long sentence in this case.

Click here to attempt the quiz for this lesson.

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