Kinds of Sentences

Declarative – A declarative sentence makes a statement. A declarative sentence ends with a period.

Example: The house will be built on a hill.

Interrogative – An interrogative sentence asks a question. An interrogative sentence ends with a question mark.

Example: How did you find the card?

Exclamatory – An exclamatory sentence shows strong feeling. An exclamatory sentence ends with an exclamation mark.

Example: The monster is attacking!

Imperative – An imperative sentence gives a command.

Example: Cheryl, try the other door.

Sometimes the subject of an imperative sentence (you) is understood.

Example: Look in the closet. (You, look in the closet.)

Mood

Mood is the expression of modality of an action or state. Modality is the expression of possibility, necessity, and contingency. Modality can be expressed through modal verbs as well as through grammatical mood in English. English has three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative.

The indicative mood allows speakers to express assertions, denials, and questions of actuality or strong probability. Most sentences in English are in the indicative mood because the indicative is the most commonly used mood. For example, the statement I read the book and the question Did you read the book? are both sentences in the indicative mood.

The subjunctive mood expresses commands, requests, suggestions, wishes, hypotheses, purposes, doubts, and suppositions that are contrary to the fact at the time of the utterance. The form of the present subjunctive is identical to the base form of English verbs. The form of the past subjunctive is identical to the plural simple past indicative. However, the subjunctive is only distinguishable in form from the indicative in the third person singular present subjunctive and with the verb to be in the present subjunctive and the first and third-person singular in the past subjunctive.

The imperative mood allows speakers to make direct commands, express requests, and grant or deny permission. The form of the English imperative is identical to the base form of any English verb. The negative form of the English imperative is created by inserting the do operator and the negative adverb not before the base form of the verb.

Voice

Voice is the expression of relationships between the predicate and nominal functions. English has two voices: active and passive. In the active voice, the subject performs the action of or acts upon the verb and the direct object receives the action of the verb. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the transitive verb. For example, the sentence I read the book is in the active voice because the subject ‘I’ performs the action of reading, and the direct object ‘the book’ receives the action of reading. The sentence The book was read [by me], on the other hand, is in the passive voice because the subject The book receives the action of reading.