{"id":10928,"date":"2018-11-12T09:42:30","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T09:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/?p=10928"},"modified":"2026-04-27T05:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T05:00:05","slug":"what-every-student-needs-to-know-about-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/what-every-student-needs-to-know-about-sentences\/","title":{"rendered":"What every student needs to know about sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Let\u2019s start at the beginning, with the child who is trying to get their thoughts and ideas onto the page in the written form.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For children who struggle with literacy, this can be a real challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Forget about: nouns, verbs, adverbs or adjectives, to get started children need to know what a complete sentence is.<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes a sentence complete or incomplete?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n
\u201cA sentence is a complete idea in words, which makes sense when read on its own.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n\n

When a sentence is incomplete, it invariably leaves us wondering; what is going on in the story or leaves us asking a question.<\/span><\/p>\n

To determine if a sentence is complete, look at it in isolation and ask the following questions;<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Is it a complete idea?<\/li>\n
  2. Does it make sense?<\/li>\n
  3. Does it leave us asking a question?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/center><\/p>\n
    \u201cAn incomplete sentence will leave you asking questions and wondering what happened.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n\n

    Here are some examples of complete sentences and I\u2019ll explain why they are complete.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The dog sat on a log.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

    We know there is a dog and it sat on a log. It\u2019s a complete idea, and it makes sense. It\u2019s a complete sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The lady\u2019s moustache was ginger.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

    We know there is a lady. We know she has a moustache (who knows why) and that it\u2019s ginger in colour. This is also a complete sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I can see a surfer on a wave.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

    There is a surfer, I can see them, and they are on a wave. It is a complete idea, and it makes sense when we read it.<\/span><\/p>\n

    My white car has a broken tail light.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

    You can hear that I am talking about my car, its white and it has a broken tail light. It\u2019s a complete sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Why don\u2019t you come for a swim in my pool?<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

    This is a complete sentence, in fact, it\u2019s asking a question. Here I am asking you to come to swim in my pool.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    You can use these or make up your own sentences to create a game. Ask your child or students to determine if a sentence is complete or incomplete.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Come up with some crazy sentences and have some fun.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Now let\u2019s look at some incomplete sentences.<\/span><\/p>\n

    By the shed sat\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

    This sentence leaves you wondering! It leaves you asking; sat what? Don\u2019t you want to know what was by the shed? I do! This sentence is not complete.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

    When he flew past, he\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/center><\/div>\n

    What happened to him when he flew past? It leaves you asking.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

    Dogs run North when\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

    When, what, why do dogs run North? There could be all sorts of reasons, but I don\u2019t know which one because the sentence is incomplete. This sentence was never finished.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The horse’s back hoof was\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

    What had happened to horse\u2019s back hoof? You can see a child would be asking just like we are, what was going on with the horse\u2019s back hoof. We are asking a question, so it\u2019s an incomplete sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

    In the Department store she\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

    She what? Again, we are left asking a question, what did she do? I\u2019d like to think she went on a mad shopping spree, but we\u2019ll never know because the sentence is incomplete.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Finally, and this is one of my favourites.<\/span><\/div>\n
    Andrew picked his\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

    What did Andrew pick? Did Andrew pick his nose, his skin or a pimple? We don\u2019t know what Andrew picked because the sentence was never finished.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    I hope this gives you some ideas on how to teach children if a sentence is complete or incomplete.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Remember if a sentence is complete, it must have a complete idea and make sense when read in isolation. An incomplete sentence will leave you asking a question.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    Do you like the way I broke writing complete sentences into the first step in a series of steps? Today we just covered how to identify whether a sentence was incomplete or complete.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Breaking learning into small, easily understood steps makes learning easier to understand particularly for the struggling learner.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Does your child need help with literacy and are you searching for a way to help them?<\/span><\/p>\n

    You can watch a webinar here on the Speech to Spelling Code\u2122<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Click on the link here<\/a><\/strong> to find out more.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Let\u2019s start at the beginning, with the child who is trying to get their thoughts and ideas onto the page in the written form. For children who struggle with literacy, this can be a real challenge. Forget about: nouns, verbs, adverbs or adjectives, to get started children need to know...
    Continue reading...<\/a>","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":16075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-punctuation-and-grammar"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10928"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10987,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10928\/revisions\/10987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}