The Mount Minute: What Makes a Sentence a Sentence?

Hi, I’m Gina Evers – a writer, writing teacher, and the person who runs the Tutoring & Writing Center at Mount Saint Mary College.

Being able to clearly render your thoughts in writing is at the heart of any college-level study, and clarity always beings with a correctly structured sentence. So, what makes a sentence a sentence? A subject. A verb. And a complete thought. Here’s a quick example:

Dominic adores nonfiction.

It’s always easiest to identify the verb first: that’s where the action is. In this case, the verb is adores. Next, to identify the subject, ask yourself who or what adores? Dominic adores – so there is our subject. We can now ask: what is being adored? That’s the object of the adoration. In our example, nonfiction.

Dominic (subject) adores (verb) nonfiction (complete thought). Check, check, and check! We have a correctly structured sentence.

For more information on the academic support we offer to our students here at the Mount, visit msmc.edu