Adding interjections
Interjectionsare expressions showing an emotion. They are
not necessary to the sentence.
Oh! Goodness me!Reviewing sentence construction
A sentence must contain at least one noun or pronoun,
which is the subject of the sentence, and a finite verb.
Classifying clauses
There are two types of clause – main and subordinate. Each
sentence must contain at least one main clause. A clause
containsonefinite verb. Subordinate clauses can be linked to
main clauses by the use of conjunctions. If you have more
than one finite verb in a sentence, you have more than one
clause. Check that you have linked the clauses with conjunc-
tions.
She was crying because her mother had punished her.She was crying (main clause)
her mother had punished her (subordinate clause)
because (conjunction)Do not put a comma between two main clauses unless you
are writing alistof main clauses. Remember that the last one
mustbe preceded by ‘and’.
138 / IMPROVE YOUR PUNCTUATION & GRAMMAR