Section 5: Sentence Structure, Clauses & Punctuation
In-depth drills on clause analysis, sentence transformations, synthesis, question tags, punctuation mechanics, and standard capitalization rules.
Types of sentences
Assertive, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory sentence identification and characteristics
Simple, compound and complex sentences
Independent and dependent clauses, coordinating vs subordinating connectives
Subject, predicate and objects
Syntactic elements: simple/complete subjects, predicates, direct/indirect objects, complements
Phrases: kinds
Noun phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, absolute phrases
Clauses: noun clauses
Subordinate clauses serving as subject, object of verb, prepositional object, or in apposition
Clauses: adjective clauses
Relative clauses modifying noun antecedents; defining (restrictive) vs non-defining clauses
Clauses: adverb clauses
Subordinate clauses of time, place, manner, cause/reason, purpose, condition, and concession
Transformation: simple, compound, complex
Converting clauses into phrases and interchanging sentence types without changing meaning
Transformation: affirmative and negative
Exchanging affirmative and negative assertions using antonyms and double negatives
Transformation: degrees of comparison
Switching between positive, comparative, and superlative degrees while preserving statement sense
Transformation: assertive, interrogative, exclamatory
Rhetorical question transforms, exclamatory to assertive shifts, sentence inversions
Question tags
Auxiliary contractions, negative/positive tag matching, irregular exceptions (let’s, I am, nobody)
Punctuation
Commas, semicolons, colons, hyphens, dashes, apostrophes, quotation marks, parentheses
Capitalisation and common usage rules
Formal writing conventions, proper nouns, titles, abbreviations, and sentence boundary rules