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simple sentence
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noun
a sentence having only one clause, as I saw her the day before yesterday.
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QUIZ
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Words nearby simple sentence
simple pendulum, simple pole, simple present, simple protein, simple salt, simple sentence, Simple Simon, simple sugar, simple syrup, simple tense, simple time
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
MORE ABOUT SIMPLE SENTENCE
What is a simple sentence?
A simple sentence is a sentence that contains a single independent clause.
In grammar, a clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a predicate. The subject is the word that indicates what a sentence is about or who or what is performing an action. A subject can be a noun (car, Tom), a noun phrase (short book, green apples), or a noun substitute (you, they). The predicate is a word that indicates what the subject is doing. A predicate is a verb (runs, is) and the words that govern or modify it (fast, hungry).
A simple sentence contains only a single clause that stands alone and makes grammatical sense. A simple sentence has only one subject and one predicate, as in Tom is hungry.
A simple sentence can also have a compound subject (two or more subjects doing the same action), a compound predicate (two or more actions being performed), and modifiers that describe the subject or predicate (such as adjectives, adverbs, and direct objects). Because it has only one clause, though, it is still a simple sentence.
Why are simple sentences important?
The first records of the phrase simple sentence come from around 1669. It combines the word simple, meaning “uncomplicated,” and sentence, meaning “a grammatical unit of words that expresses an independent idea.” Simple sentences are the most basic sentences you can use in English.
We use simple sentences frequently in English, especially to make an idea easier to understand. Understanding what simple sentences are will help you tackle more complicated sentence structures, such as compound sentences and complex sentences.
Did you know … ?
Simple sentences don’t have to be short. They can be long, especially if you get creative with adjectives, as in The big, ugly, scraggly dog hungrily ate the half-full can of baked beans.
What are real-life examples of simple sentence?
This image gives examples of some different kinds of simple sentences you can make.
English Hints
We use simple sentences every day.
I need a big favor! Can someone translate two simple sentences from English to Spanish for me? (I took Latin; I’m useless.)
— Anna Dorfman 🥯 (@doorsixteen) December 7, 2010
“I will try to have
a great day” –@AsunaaThe text I read before I started my morning run. Positive psychology teaches us that this seemingly simple sentence programs the subconscious mind to “have a great day.”
Intentions become experiences.
Let’s have a great day.
— Edward Cleland (@MindBodyEsports) March 14, 2021
Quiz yourself!
Which of the following is NOT a simple sentence?
A. Fish swim.
B. Matt and Ashley ate cake.
C. I had seven kittens, but my brother adopted one.
D. Sit!
How to use simple sentence in a sentence
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Healthcare as we know it today is governed with information sheets and short, simple sentences that simplify and flatten complexity in an attempt to achieve clarity.
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One of the reasons that people like my YouTube channel, as stupid as it sounds, is that my English is not good, which forces me to speak in simple sentences using words that do not contain too many syllables.
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There’s a bone-deep distrust of the system embedded in that simple sentence.
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Three days after, she retweeted a tellingly simple sentence: “Family is hard.”
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In my case, the simple sentence is “I want to be safe, and I want to be heard.”
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Which simple sentence contains more wisdom than all the pessimism of the King of kings.
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In the talk of a child every thought phrases itself as a simple sentence.
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One simple sentence at length solved all these unpleasant doubts, and pressed the unwelcome truth home to my heart.
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Let us begin with a simple sentence that involves various kinds of concepts—the farmer kills the duckling.
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Even such a simple sentence as «And Julia Duane faced the most sacred duties of a woman’s life alone» was barred.
British Dictionary definitions for simple sentence
Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for simple sentence
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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PRONUNCIATION OF SIMPLE SENTENCE
GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF SIMPLE SENTENCE
Simple sentence is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.
WHAT DOES SIMPLE SENTENCE MEAN IN ENGLISH?
Sentence clause structure
In grammar, clause structure refers to the classification of sentences based on the number and kind of clauses in their syntactic structure. Such division is an element of traditional grammar. A simple sentence consists of only one clause. A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses. A complex sentence has at least one independent clause plus at least one dependent clause. A sentence consisting of one or more dependent clauses plus two or more independent clauses may be called a complex-compound sentence or compound-complex sentence. Sentence 1 is an example of a simple sentence. Sentence 2 is compound, while sentence 3 is complex. Sentence 4 is compound-complex. ▪ I like pumpkin pie. ▪ I don’t know how to bake, so I buy my sweets. ▪ I enjoyed the apple pie that you bought for me. ▪ The dog lived in the garden, but the cat, which was smarter, lived inside the house. The simple sentence in example 1 contains one clause. Example two has two clauses, combined into a single sentence with the coordinating conjunction so.
Synonyms and antonyms of simple sentence in the English dictionary of synonyms
Translation of «simple sentence» into 25 languages
TRANSLATION OF SIMPLE SENTENCE
Find out the translation of simple sentence to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of simple sentence from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «simple sentence» in English.
Translator English — Chinese
简单的一句话
1,325 millions of speakers
Translator English — Spanish
oración simple
570 millions of speakers
Translator English — Hindi
सरल वाक्य
380 millions of speakers
Translator English — Arabic
جملة بسيطة
280 millions of speakers
Translator English — Russian
простое предложение
278 millions of speakers
Translator English — Portuguese
frase simples
270 millions of speakers
Translator English — Bengali
সহজ বাক্য
260 millions of speakers
Translator English — French
phrase simple
220 millions of speakers
Translator English — Malay
Ayat mudah
190 millions of speakers
Translator English — German
einfachen Satz
180 millions of speakers
Translator English — Japanese
単文
130 millions of speakers
Translator English — Korean
간단한 문장
85 millions of speakers
Translator English — Javanese
Ukara prasaja
85 millions of speakers
Translator English — Vietnamese
câu đơn giản
80 millions of speakers
Translator English — Tamil
எளிய வாக்கியம்
75 millions of speakers
Translator English — Marathi
साधी वाक्य
75 millions of speakers
Translator English — Turkish
Basit cümle
70 millions of speakers
Translator English — Italian
frase semplice
65 millions of speakers
Translator English — Polish
proste zdanie
50 millions of speakers
Translator English — Ukrainian
просте речення
40 millions of speakers
Translator English — Romanian
propoziție simplă
30 millions of speakers
Translator English — Greek
απλή φράση
15 millions of speakers
Translator English — Afrikaans
eenvoudige sin
14 millions of speakers
Translator English — Swedish
enkel mening
10 millions of speakers
Translator English — Norwegian
enkel setning
5 millions of speakers
Trends of use of simple sentence
TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «SIMPLE SENTENCE»
The term «simple sentence» is regularly used and occupies the 55.900 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «simple sentence» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of simple sentence
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «simple sentence».
FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «SIMPLE SENTENCE» OVER TIME
The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «simple sentence» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «simple sentence» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.
Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about simple sentence
10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «SIMPLE SENTENCE»
Discover the use of simple sentence in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to simple sentence and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Minimum Essentials of English
The simple sentence has other names: independent clause is the most common,
although simple clause is frequently used. Dependent clauses are sentences that
have been slightly altered so that they cannot stand alone (because their …
2
Writing Lesson Level 3—A Simple Sentence
Think. About. Writing. 1. Remind students that they have been practicing building
and stretching sentences. Explain that often writers read and rewrite to createjust
the right balance in their sentences. 2. Review mentor texts, ifdesired, and …
Richard Gentry, Ph.D., Jan McNeel, M.A.Ed., 2014
3
Word Order in the Simple Bulgarian Sentence: A Study in …
Until the last two decades, the study of Bulgarian sentential word order had been
restricted to the traditional descriptions of the makeup of various simple sentence
structures commonly and grammatically found in Bulgarian speech or writing.
4
Building Sentence Skills: Tools for Writing the Amazing …
Not all sentences are as clear and as short as “Sam read the book”; however,
your ability to recognize this simple sentence is an important starting point for
understanding longer, more elaborate sentences. A simple sentence is made up
of two …
5
Course In English Grammar,A
The number of simple sentence patterns in English is small and limited. Once the
concept of simple sentence patterns is understood, it becomes easier to
understand complex and compound sentence structures. Several examples of
simple …
6
The Writer’s Digest Grammar Desk Reference
BD Simple Sentences A simple sentence is often mistakenly defined according to
its length, just as the term sentence itself can be mistakenly defined according to
the completeness of the thought it conveys. Simple sentences are thus believed …
Gary Lutz, Diane Stevenson, 2005
7
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
(See subordination; compare compound sentence, compound-complex
SenTenCe, and SIMPle SenTenCe.) compound sentence A sentence that
contains at least two independent clauses, often joined by conjunctions: «Dr.
Watson explained …
Eric Donald Hirsch, Joseph F. Kett, James S. Trefil, 2002
8
Mastering English: An Advanced Grammar for Non-native and …
The simple sentence 7.1. Introduction: simple and complex sentences Sentences
are either simple or complex. A sentence is simple if it consists of one clause only
: (1) The papers blew from my desk. (2) Marion is such a nice person.
Carl Bache, Niels Davidsen-Nielsen, 1997
9
Art of Sentence Making in English
A simple sentence has only one subject and one predicate and a compound
sentence must have two or more coordinate clauses having their own subject
and predicate. A. CONVERSION OF SIMPLE SENTENCE INTO COMPOUND …
10
The Lexical Basis of Sentence Processing: Formal, …
Prediction 2: Structured Lexical Verbatim Memory Simple Sentence < Complex
Sentence < Most Complex Sentence < Word List At this point, it is time to
consider one central question of this section: to what extent is there an area
which …
Paola Merlo, Suzanne Stevenson, 2002
10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «SIMPLE SENTENCE»
Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term simple sentence is used in the context of the following news items.
An ages-old lesson, boiled down to a simple sentence
Summers are for distractions. Beaches and books, family trips to national parks, blockbuster movies. Legislatures recess and presidents go to ranches or … «Charlotte Observer, Jun 15»
The One Sentence That Will Make You Rich
Completing this seemingly simple sentence forces you to step back, if only for a moment, and take a hard look at your life and where you’re going. It has helped … «Huffington Post, Apr 15»
Children starting school cannot speak in simple sentences says new …
Too many four-year-olds are starting school unable to speak in simple sentences, a new study has claimed. Boys are twice as likely as girls to have problems … «mirror.co.uk, Mar 15»
10 simple sentences guaranteed to make your friends absolutely livid
Whether you want to piss someone off with zero effort or do your best to avoid being a jerk this holiday season, you should read, study and memorize these ten … «Dose.ca, Dec 14»
In One Simple Sentence, Alibaba’s Jack Ma Shows How Easy It Is …
But what makes him even more special are the inspirational things he occasionally says. In fact, he even runs his own blog where he often shares his thoughts … «Business Insider, Oct 14»
One Simple Sentence May Have Just Turned The Entire Ferguson …
More than five weeks ago, a Missouri grand jury began hearing evidence in the Ferguson police shooting that left Michael Brown dead in the street. As you may … «Western Journalism, Oct 14»
How to Understand the Commerce Clause in One Simple Sentence
Chad Kent is an author and speaker with a unique style that makes the Constitution simple and fun. Listen to Chad every Saturday during The Chris Salcedo … «TheBlaze.com, Jul 14»
Save The Children report: Malnourished children struggle to read …
Malnourished children struggle to read and write simple sentences regardless of their level of schooling. Eight-year-old pupils stunted by a lack of food were … «Mirror.co.uk, May 13»
Sentences Crisp, Sassy, Stirring
And that’s all it takes to make a simple sentence, like one that might appear in the arts pages of a newspaper: A popular musical is coming to Broadway. «New York Times, May 12»
With one simple sentence, ABC News confirms the death of Beltway …
It’s from an online report about the Obama school «controversy,» and it’s written by Dan Harris. In his piece, Harris notes that conservatives pre-emptively blasted … «Media Matters for America, Sep 09»
REFERENCE
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Discover all that is hidden in the words on 
The
simple sentence is a sentence in which only one predicative line is
expressed.
1.
According to their structure all
simple sentences of English should be divided into two-member
(two-axis) constructions and one-member (one-axis)
constructions
(Fig.
112).
One-member
and two-member sentences are distinguished by the number of
principal parts (positions) they contain: two-member sentences have
two main parts – the subject and the predicate, while one-member
sentences have only one principal part, which is neither the
subject nor the predicate.
Fig.
112
One-member
sentences in English are of two types:
nominal
sentences and
verbal
sentences. Nominal sentences are those in which the principal part is
expressed by a noun. They state the existence of the things expressed
by them. They are typical of descriptions. Verbal sentences are those
in which the principal part is expressed by a non-finite form of the
verb, either an infinitive or a gerund. Infinitive and gerundial
one-member sentences are mostly used to describe different emotional
perceptions of reality.
Two-member
(two-axis) constructions can be complete
and
incomplete. They are distinguished by the presence or absence of
word-forms in the principal positions of two-member sentences.
In a complete sentence both
the principal positions are filled with word-forms.
In an
incomplete (elliptical) sentence one or both of the main positions
are not filled, but can be easily supplied as it is clear from the
context what is missing.
Elliptical
sentences are typical of conversational English. There exist several
types of elliptical sentences (Fig.
113).
Fig.
113
Fig.
114
The
semantic classification of simple sentences should be effected at
least on the three bases: first, on the basis of the subject
categorial meanings; second,
on the basis of the predicate
categorial meanings; third,
on the basis of the subject-object
relation.
2.
According to the type of the subject
simple sentences are divided into personal and impersonal (Fig.
114).
The further division of the personal sentences is into human and
non-human; human —
into
definite and indefinite; non-human —
into
animate and inanimate. The further essential division of impersonal
sentences is into factual and perceptional. The differences in
subject categorial meanings are sustained by the obvious differences
in subject-predicate combinability.
3.
According to the type of the predicate simple
sentences are divided into process-featuring (“verbal”) and, in
the broad sense, substance-featuring (including substance as such and
substantive quality —
“nominal”)
(Fig.
115).
Among the process-featuring sentences actional and statal ones are to
be discriminated. Among the substance-featuring sentences factual and
perceptional ones are to be discriminated.
Fig.
115
4.
According
to the type of the subject-object relation
simple
sentences should be divided into subjective, objective and neutral or
“potentially” objective, capable of implying both the transitive
action of the syntactic person and the syntactic person’s
intransitive characteristic (Fig.
116).
Fig.
116
5.
According to the presence of secondary parts simple
sentences should be divided into unextended
(unexpanded) and extended
(expanded)
(Fig.
117).
Fig.
117
An
unextended
sentence contains two main positions of the basic pattern, that of
the subject and the predicate.
An extended
sentence may contain various
optional
elements (including attributes, certain kinds of prepositional
objects and adverbial modifiers).
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sentence
A sentence, whether short or long, must express a complete idea; and a complete sentence must consist of at least one independent clause—that is, a subject and predicate that make a complete thought. Independent clauses are so called because they make sense when they stand on their own. They are also sometimes referred to as “main clauses.”
Continue reading…
simple sentence
n.
A sentence having no coordinate or subordinate clauses, as The cat purred.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
simple sentence
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
sim′ple sen′tence
n.
Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.