Lesson video

Hi there, my name is Mr. Chanderpaul, and I'm really looking forward to starting off this new unit with you.

We're gonna be stepping into the unknown together, which means that we're gonna have a really exciting time, making sure that we're really confident with some of the most basic elements of English language.

Today what we're gonna be having a look at is making sure that we're really confident with sentence construction so that we can make really confident, complete sentences and make sure that we're spotting when we are writing in sentence fragments.

So today we're gonna be having a look at identifying complete sentences, and correct sentence and fragments.

To do that, we need to be really confident with our keywords.

So let's just review them.

The subject of a sentence is in grammar, the person, place, or thing that is performing the action of the sentence.

So that's a noun, which is doing the doing word in the sentence, I've used the word doing word when really if I was being really correct, I should say the verb, which is a being, a doing, or a having word.

All complete sentences will have a verb as part of them, and usually a subject as well.

If it doesn't have a verb, it is what we would call a sentence fragment, a small part broken off or separated from something.

There are also subordinate clauses, which mean, and subordinate is an adjective, which means being lower in rank or position.

Finally, we have the adjective, complete, when something has all the necessary or appropriate parts.

So we're gonna be looking today at creating complete sentences, sentences which have all the necessary or appropriate parts to them.

So, let's start off by reviewing complete sentences.

In this lesson, we're going to look at how to write in complete sentences.

Why do you think it's important to be able to write in complete sentences? Pause the video now, and if you're working alone, you may want to take some notes or if you're in a class, you may want to just discuss that with the person next to you or as part of the class.

Pause the video now, why do you think it's important to be able to write in complete sentences? Fantastic work, I really like seeing your discussions.

Laura said that, "Writing in complete sentences lets us convey our exact meaning to the reader.

It avoids confusion and makes our writing easy to understand." Laura's absolutely right here and I know a lot of you said the same thing, we're trying to make sure that our work is as simple to understand for our reader as possible.

Lucas comes up with this definition for a complete sentence.

What else do you think is needed, though, to complete, and to create a complete sentence or complete his definition even? Lucas says, "A complete sentence needs a subject, a capital letter, and a full-stop." Lucas has done really well here, but pause the video now, can you spot what he needs to include? Really good work, everyone! I heard a couple of people say correctly that you would need a verb.

Maybe you're a smart Alex, like Alex, who also says, "A complete sentence also needs a verb." So, a complete sentence is a group of words that contain a subject and a verb.

We're going to talk through those two component parts individually.

Let's start with the subject of a sentence.

A subject is the person, place, or thing that is performing the action of the sentence.

Remember, that's one of our keywords for this lesson.

So take a moment and work out what is the subject in this sentence? 'Alice's shoes tapped their way along the paving.

' Pause the video, what is the subject in that sentence? Well done, I could hear several people debating it.

Remember, it's not just the noun, it's the noun that is doing the verb.

So here, Alice's shoes are the ones tapping on the paving and therefore, they're the subject of the sentence since they are performing the action, not Alice, but Alice's shoes, that whole noun phrase.

Let's check our understanding here.

Complete this sentence example: 'The rabbit glanced at its pocket watch.

' So complete the following sentence: The subject of the complete sentence example is.

Pause the video, tell me from the sentence example: 'The rabbit glanced at its pocket watch,' what is the subject? Pause the video like that.

I could see several of you sort of like umming and aahing around it.

Well done, to those of you that realised it was the rabbit, because it is the rabbit who is performing that verb, which is glancing.

So a verb is a being, a doing, or a having word.

So if we have a look at the sentence, 'Alice drank from the small bottle.

' Can you identify what the verb is in the sentence? Pause the video and try and work it out.

Really good work there from a lot of people, people realise that Alice was the subject, but the verb crucially, is drank because Alice is performing that verb as she is drinking.

Therefore, drank is the verb in this sentence.

So, I'd like you to complete the following sentence using the complete sentence example to help us.

So the complete sentence example is 'The mouse wore a top hat.

' You need to complete the sentence by telling me the verb of the complete sentence example is.

Pause the video, work it out.

Well done, for those of us who had identified that the mouse is our subject, but remember, our verb here is wore because the mouse as the subject is wearing the top hat.

So our verb is wore.

So let's have a go at practising this skill now forming complete sentences, by explaining whether the following sentences are complete sentences or not.

So we've got our first sentence, Alice paused as she passed through the tall grass.

Our second sentence, the twisted tree branches, and then our final sentence, the blossom swayed.

To do this, it's helpful for you to remember what you need to include in your explanation.

You need to think about what makes a complete sentence.

So does it have a verb? Does it have a subject? Where can you see those elements in the sentences that you have identified as complete? So can you circle or underline which specific words are our subject and our verb? Pause the video now, and practise using those three sentences.

Identify which is complete, and then, for those which aren't complete, see if you can fix them for me.

Which elements are missing? Pause the video and have a go.

Really good work, everyone.

I really liked the fact that people were checking where their verbs were, where their subject was.

Let's take some feedback.

So you might have said, "Alice paused as she passed through the tall grass," is a complete sentence because we have our subject, in Alice as she's the one performing the action, and because she "paused," which is our verb, that's what's being done; therefore, this is a complete sentence.

What about the twisted tree branches, though? I saw a lot of people umming and aahing around this.

So here we have "twisted," which is an adjective, and we have tree branches, which is the subject; however, what is missing is our verb.

So because of that, this can't be called a complete sentence.

What about the blossom swayed? I saw a lot of people saying that this was a full sentence.

Let's have a look if you were right.

So, 'blossoms" is the subject of the sentence, as they are performing the action, and the action is swayed, so we have a verb, but there's an element that's missing, isn't there? There's no full-stop.

So if there's no full-stop at the end of the sentence, it means it's not quite complete.

All we would need to do is just put a full-stop at the end.

Really good work on complete sentences.

Now let's have a look at sentence fragments.

So a reminder of that key term, a sentence fragment is a sentence that is missing either its subject or its main verb.

For example, 'Peering through the minuscule window,' is a sentence fragment because there's no subject in the sentence.

We don't who or what is peering through the minuscule window, we just know that something is.

In order to fix a sentence fragment, we need to add in the missing part, so we need to include the subject.

How can we make this fragment a complete sentence? 'Wandered through the enchanting blooms.' We've got our verb, wandered, but what's missing at the moment? How can we make this fragment a complete sentence? Pause the video, have a think, maybe talk to your partners, maybe have a go at just writing it for yourself.

Pause the video, try it now.

Great work, to those of you who identified that the verb is wandered.

Let's see how we could improve this, though, to make it a complete sentence.

All we need to do is add in Alice in order to give the sentence to subject, and show who has wandered through the enchanting blooms. How can we make this fragment a complete sentence? 'My favourite pinafore dress.

' Pause the video, what's missing? Well done to those of you who said that it's missing a verb.

So we've added the verb was, which is the past tense of to be, and we have a subject, the pinafore dress, and a verb, was, so does that mean that the sentence is complete? Pause the video, have a think.

(sighing) I tried to trick you, you found me out.

While we have a subject and a verb, we don't know what's happened to the verb, dress.

So it's not a complete thought.

We might add a ruined so that we know what happens to the dress, that makes it a complete thought.

So let's just check our understanding here.

Which of the following is a sentence fragment? A, Alice ran.

B Alice's white cat, Diana C, Alice saw her white cat, Diana.

Remember a sentence fragment is going to be missing, either a subject or a verb.

Which of A, B or C is our sentence fragment? Pause the video, see if you can work it out.

Really good work there, everyone.

You're absolutely correct, B is our sentence fragment.

Alice's white cat, Diana could be a subject, could be the object of a sentence, but we have no verb.

So I wanna practise this now and you are gonna rewrite these sentence fragments to form complete sentences.

So we've got the sentence fragment.

Alice couldn't wait to be.

Alice's black bow.

Peered down into the rabbit hole.

Remember, as you're rewriting these three sentence fragments to form complete sentences, you need to make sure that you follow the rules for a complete sentence, which means you need to include a subject, a verb, and it needs to be a complete thought.

Pause the video, and in your notes, try completing those sentences.

Let's take some feedback, should we? You could say Alice couldn't wait to be home again.

Alice's black bow winked, and Alice peered down into the rabbit hole.

So in the first one, Alice couldn't wait to be, wasn't a complete thought.

She couldn't wait to be what or where? So we've put, home again.

Alice's black bow is a really good subject, but had no verb.

So we've just put the verb, winked, and finally, peered down into the rabbit hole has a verb, but missed the subject.

So we've included the subject, Alice.

You may want to correct your work in a different colour pen.

Pause the video now, correct your work, adding in those explanations.

Great work, everyone, really impressive stuff there, we're mastering sentence fragments and we've nailed the complete sentences! Just to recap, Alice couldn't wait, to make it a complete thought.

We needed to add the verb and we needed to add a subject.

So we're now ready to move on to subordinate clauses.

A subordinate clause is a group of words that is not a complete sentence, it compliments and adds extra information to the complete sentence.

For example, 'Because it was a beautiful day, Alice sat down by a tree to read.

' Here, because it was a beautiful day, is the subordinate clause, since it doesn't make sense by itself and it's not a complete sentence; however, it does add extra information that compliments the rest of the sentence.

We then have, Alice sat down by a tree to read, which is the main clause because it is a complete sentence.

Alice is the subject, sat is the verb, and the sentence is a complete thought.

Subordinate clauses will often begin with the subordinating conjunction, which are words that link subordinate clauses to main clauses.

Discuss for a moment, either in your class or you may want to take notes by yourself, an example of a subordinating clause is 'therefore,' can you think of any other examples? Pause the video, see what you can think of.

Really nice stuff there, you could see a lot of people scratching for some good ones.

So some that I came up with are subordinating conjunction such as for, as, since, hence, consequently, though, due to, provided that, because, unless, once, while, when, whenever, where, wherever, before, and after.

All of these are subordinating conjunctions, which means we've got so much that we could potentially be doing.

A subordinate clause can go at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a sentence, you can choose where it slides into your work.

For example, here, 'Since it was raining, Alice ran under the tree for cover,' is an example of a subordinate cause at the beginning of our sentence, which we have punctuated was a comma after it.

Alternatively, you could move it, so it was Alice who ran under the tree, since it was raining, for cover.

Here the subordinate clause is in the middle of the sentence, which means we need commas, dashes, or brackets around it to separate it from the main clause.

Finally, we have 'Alice ran under the tree for cover since it was raining.

' Here, the subordinate clause is at the end of the sentence and you don't need a comma to separate it.

So let's just check for understanding here.

Which of the two following statements are true? A, A subordinate clause is a complete thought.

B, A subordinate clause is an incomplete thought.

C, You need a comma after the subordinate clause at the beginning of a sentence or, D, You need a comma before the subordinate clause at the end of the sentence.

Pause the video, find out which two of the following statements are true.

Really good work there, everyone, well done to those of you who noticed that subordinate clauses are incomplete thoughts, and we need commas after the subordinate clause if we use them at the beginning of a sentence, great stuff! So, we're gonna practise now for Task C and we're gonna write three sentences about this beautiful picture that include a subordinate clause.

You may want to add some variety to your sentences by beginning one sentence with a subordinate clause.

For example, 'Running past the daisies, Alice smelt a cloying sweetness.

So what I really like about that sentence is we've got the subordinate clause at the start, and we've got that lovely sensory language.

Using the subordinate clause in the middle of a sentence.

So, 'Alice, who wore a black ribbon in her hair, fell down the rabbit hole.

' Notice how the commas are being used really accurately there to separate our subordinate clause from the rest of the sentence.

And then end the sentence with a subordinate clause.

For example, 'Alice sat down next to the caterpillar since he seemed lonely.

' Really be careful here, even though since he seemed lonely is our subordinate clause, we don't need a comma after the caterpillar and before since there because we know it's our subordinate clause.

Pause the video now and write your three sentences, each including a subordinate clause, and varying where they go to describe the picture.

Gosh, you're all so creative, some really excellent work there, guys.

Let's have a look.

We're gonna take some feedback now.

you might have said, "Wandering down the path, the vivid colours of red and yellow brought a smile to Alice's face." That uses a subordinate clause right at the start of the sentence.

You may have said, "Alice, who was very fond of the flowers, leaned down to smell the beautiful daffodils." Here, we've got the subordinate clause embedded in the middle of the sentence, "who was very fond of flowers," adding a little bit of extra information about Alice.

And then we've got, "Alice and Diana idled down the path as they had nowhere they needed to be." Oh, I love how idle they seem there.

And we've got that subordinate clause right at the end of the sentence, "as they had nowhere they needed to be." Take a moment, add any notes you need.

So let's summarise our key learning for today's lesson.

We've been looking at writing in complete sentences.

We remember a complete sentence has a subject, a verb, and expresses a complete idea.

A sentence fragment, though, is an incomplete sentence, it lacks a subject, a verb, or potentially, both.

To correct sentence fragments, we need to identify whether the subject or verb is missing and add it to the sentence.

Finally, a subordinate clause is a group of words that is not a complete sentence, but does help to add extra information.

You've done some really excellent work today, everyone, and I've been super impressed! If you're able to master these basics now, you're gonna be really successful in this unit, and in English as a whole, great work! I look forward to working with you again soon.