It might sound a little outlandish, but you can form sentences with only one word. That’s right; you can write one word and then place a period (or exclamation mark) to close it. This article will explore some examples to help you understand them.
Can One Word Be A Sentence?
Of course, it’s possible to come across one word as a sentence. Here are some of the types that we will mention in this article:
- Interrogatives
- Imperatives
- Declaratives
- Locatives
- Nominatives
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Accusatives
- Exclamations
A one-word sentence is known simply as a sentence word. The above types are all the broader words we can use to describe specific types of sentence words. Each one offers a different way for us to use a one-word sentence when they apply.
Interrogatives
Interrogatives are the most common form of sentence words. We use them mainly as questions because they cover the most common words in English like “who,” “what,” and “where.” These words are all simple one-word sentences in the form of direct questions.
Here are some of the best interrogatives you can use:
- Who?
- What?
- Where?
- How?
- When?
- Why?
As you can see, each one is followed by a question mark. This shows that all interrogatives work best when we are directing them as a question toward someone.
It’s also common for the answer to be a sentence word, but it depends on the context. Most of the answers you can give to interrogative sentence words will apply to one of the other sections coming up in the article.
Imperatives
Imperatives are commanding words. We can use verbs to command someone to do something in the imperative case. It’s common for imperative sentences to have only one word because it shows the emphasis and need of someone to follow whatever command you are giving.
Since all imperatives are commands in the form of verbs, these examples should help you to understand them:
- Stop.
- Don’t.
- Leave.
- Go.
- Run.
- Walk.
- Work.
- Return.
Each of these verb forms allows us to give someone a command. The period after each one really emphasizes the need for someone to listen to what we have to say.
It can be easy for some people to ignore commands, which is why the imperative form exists. We can use these sentence words with a stern tone to show that we are only interested in someone listening to us (it’s usually for their own good).
Declaratives
Declaratives allow us to declare ourselves or someone else as an answer. We can use declaratives like “me” when we want to show that we are happy to declare ourselves or our actions in some way. Again, this mostly works when we are replying to specific questions.
There aren’t many good declaratives, but they’re still used. Here are some examples:
- Me.
- Aye.
It’s difficult to come up with many more legitimate declaratives. Some people might argue that “she” or “he” would work, but it’s not common for English speakers to use either of those pronouns as a sentence word.
That’s why “me” is the most appropriate declarative because it’s reasonable to expect someone to declare themselves as a candidate for something.
“Aye” also works because it’s a proclamation that we agree with something.
Locatives
Locatives are a more specific branch of sentence words we can use. They are word forms that always refer to locations. For example, we might say something like “here” or “there” when we are trying to show where something is happening. That’s how locatives work.
Locatives relate to locations, which these examples will make clear:
- Here.
- There.
- Everywhere.
- Nowhere.
- Home.
- Near.
- Far.
- Wherever.
- Somewhere.
As long as a position or place is mentioned in the sentence word, locatives work well. They work when replying to certain questions, so you might benefit from checking out the following examples:
- Where do you live?
- Here.
- Where were they last?
- There.
As you can see, we use them to reply to questions about someone or something’s location.
Nominatives
Nominatives are ways for us to nominate someone else. We can offer names, people, and things in the nominative case. It’s most common to see someone’s name as the nominative form when we are presenting a sentence word answer to a question.
Nominatives can cover anyone’s name, so we’ll include some examples to help you:
- Jane.
- John.
- Sarah.
- Stuart.
- Smith.
- Daniel.
- Craig.
- Lewis.
- Martin.
There are plenty of questions that could lead us to use a nominative form. For example, if someone asked us who completed a specific job, we could provide the name if we know the person that did it.
Technically, we can also provide names of items or objects rather than just people. It mostly refers to things that you can nominate or pick out as a culprit for something, which is why it works well in many different cases.
Adjectives
Adjectives are a common form in the English language. We use them as descriptive words, but it’s also common to see them as sentence words. However, it mostly only applies to informal situations when you want to use adjectives in this manner.
Here are a couple of examples to help you out:
- Pretty.
- Cute.
- Nice.
- Kind.
- Happy.
- Friendly.
- Incredible.
- Amazing.
- Brilliant.
- Gorgeous.
- Ugly.
- Grim.
While it’s easy to easy adjectives in the sentence word form, you might not be entirely sure how to use them correctly. Remember, it’s mostly an informal construct because you would be expected to use more words formally.
You might find it useful to also see a question and answer formation to see how this works:
- What do you think of this artwork?
- Gorgeous.
- How do you find her?
- Pretty.
As you can see, each of the adjective answers allows us to modify a specific noun listed in the question. For example, the first question asked about “artwork,” which we can modify with the responsive adjective “gorgeous.”
The second example used the noun “her,” and the descriptive word was “pretty.”
Adverbs
Adverbs are similar to adjectives. However, they usually include an “-ly” ending after the adjective and modify verbs. We can use adverbs to modify the verb that might have been presented in the previous question. If the question has no verb, an adverb cannot work.
These examples will help you make more sense of what adverbs can do:
- Calmly.
- Softly.
- Easily.
- Quickly.
- Gently.
- Nicely.
- Happily.
- Confidently.
- Rapidly.
- Cautiously.
- Barely.
You might also benefit from the following question and answer examples to help you figure it out:
- Would you take a look at this for me?
- Happily.
- How should I speak when giving the address?
- Confidently.
As you can see, we can only use adverb answers when someone has provided a verb for us to modify. In the first example, we are modifying the verb “look” with “happily” to show that we’re happy to take a look at what they’ve done.
The second example modifies the verb “speak” with “confidently” to show that we have a specific desire to listen to someone speak with a confident tone.
Accusatives
Accusatives are exactly what the name would suggest they are. We can use them to accuse someone specifically. The most common way for us to do this as a sentence word is by using object pronouns to point the finger toward someone you might have done something wrong.
If you don’t know what we mean, these examples will clear things up:
- Him.
- Her.
- Them.
- That.
- It.
- You.
- Me.
- Us.
Accusatives work well when someone has asked us for a culprit. If we know that someone has done something wrong (or even if we know that someone will be helpful to answer a question), we can use this form.
Here are some examples that should help you:
- Do you know who did it?
- Him.
- Who is the smartest person here?
- Her.
It doesn’t always have to refer to bad things. Sometimes, we can use the accusative form just to pick someone out from a crowd. It’s a quick way for us to respond to a question with a pronoun rather than an explanation.
Exclamations
Exclamations are another really common form of sentence words. A simple “yes” or “no” can apply when we are using exclamations. They are called exclamations because they allow someone to exclaim their answer to a question without more explanation.
Here are a couple of examples that will help you to figure it out:
- Yes.
- No.
- Maybe.
- Oh.
There are plenty of other exclamations in English, and some people will treat them more as interjections. For example, you might be familiar with ones like “huh” or “err.”
However, we didn’t want to include these ones because they’re not technically words that you can use in English. It’s always best to stick with ones that actually have definitions, which is why we thought it was reasonable to only include a handful.
Now you have all the necessary information to help you start using sentence words yourself. Exclamations tend to be one of the most common ways to do this without even thinking about it, so get to work!
Martin holds a Master’s degree in Finance and International Business. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. Furthermore, he has teaching experience from Aarhus University. Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. Read more about Martin here.
One should consider this a general reference question. However:
Why would we have a tag «single-word requests» if there was a better term for that? Technically, there’s no such thing as a monoword, though polyword is well known, mostly as an adjective.
If you chose to be informal:
- monoword. Being of few words, being quite cold in the reply.
Wikipedia mentions word sentences, though I think that’s more of an academic term. (The link under that term contradicts, in a way, the very sentence from where it is drawn!)
sentence:
a set of words that is complete in itself, typically containing a subject and predicate, conveying a statement, question, exclamation, or command, and consisting of a main clause and sometimes one or more subordinate clauses.
A «set» can consist of any number of words, including one, or even none.
Further to that, everything else is qualified with «typical» but not necessarily.
«Yes.» is a sentence. QED.
By the way, «Yes, I am.» is not monosyllabic.
Image by Ozzy Delaney on Flickr.com licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Here I’m going to highlight some of the simplest sentences in English. All of these sentences are only ONE word long! Sit back, relax, and enjoy; these are going to be some of the easiest English sentences you’ve ever learned. (It is about time something in English was easy, right?!)
One-word sentences in English come in a few different forms:
interrogatives or questions (example: Who?)
imperatives or commands (example: Stop!)
declaratives (example: Me.)
locatives (example: Here.)
nominatives (example: Jesse.)
In fact a lot of words in English can be one-word sentences, it all depends on the context.
A complete sentence, even a one-word sentence, needs to have a noun and a verb. In one-word sentences the subject (noun) or the action (verb) of the sentence is implied. That means it is understood in the context of the sentence (or the sentences around it) so that the subject and/or verb do not need to be stated explicitly.
Being brief and saying as much as you can in as few words as possible is something a lot of people want to do. Be careful though, sometimes you can sound robotic or rude if you use too many one-word sentences.
Here is a list of some common one-word sentences. I’m sure you already use some of these. Along side the one-word sentences I have written out what you could say, with more words, to mean the same thing.
Hi. (Hi there.)
Wait. (Please wait.)
Begin. (You may begin.)
Stop. (You need to stop.)
Hurry. (Hurry up please.)
Catch. (Catch this.)
Here. (Here you go.)
Go! (Get going now!)
Help! (I need help!)
Eat. (Go ahead and eat.)
Yes. (Yes, that would be great.)
No. (No, thank you.)
Thank you. (Thank you, I really appreciate it.)
The wh-question words: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
A lot of swear words: Sh*t., F*ck., etc.
Do you have a favorite one-word sentence? Add to this list by posting a comment below! Thank you.
- If you could use one word only to describe the Wentworth cast, what would it be?
- When a proper noun is made up of more than one word, only the important words in the noun will begin with a capital letter.
- Only one word, only one word!
- Type one word only.
- Now I get one word only.
- The first prompt is word tracing only, the second prompt is word tracing with room for one or two words sounded out, and the third prompt is mostly independent writing by sounding out.
- Remind them to write down only one word per piece of paper or notecard.
- The word Arab did not appear in the Mandate Articles, only the word Arabic was to be found in describing one of the three official languages of British administration.
- Only one of the When the word only comes before one, you are safe in assuming that one is the antecedent of the relative pronoun.
- When several words of the same part of speech follow one another, the mark of the part of speech is only put after the first word, and answers to all the others.
- Microsoft word, allowing you to create a continuous print job from one program and to share data so that process only needs to be created and updated in a single document or workpaper.
- There is only one word for this behavior, and that is inhumane.
- To excel at diction requires not only choosing an accurate word but also one that sounds like music to your readers.
- If you only need one cash receipt, download and print this template using Microsoft word.
- Simply agree to only act out simple words or phrases, then take turns having one person try to explain that word or phrase to the rest of the group.
- This way, you will need to open only one word document to print all of the invitations at once.
- In English, we have only one word for love, which is pretty remarkable considering the number of words in our language and the many different types of love.
- The typewritten manuscript in MS word should be submitted only through email to any one on following Email IDs.
- Sometimes only one word is causing the confusion.
- The button will function only within one word.
- French, I learned the word for fruit fly in a book, la drosophile, but there are not going to be too many occasions I can use such a word so it will likely end up in passive only vocabulary one day.
- Now, however, only the spring one is called Setsubun and people do not think of other seasons when they hear the word Setsubun.
- One reason that only a few lexicons actually use the English word for defining any Greek or Latin word is that the word was not commonly used 300-400 years ago.
- To make things especially tricky, Masked Dancer viewers will only have the opportunity to hear the contestants say one word per performance with their voices unmodulated.
- In a word only one syllable and ina phrase only one word gets prominent stress; all other syllables and words are evenlystressed.
- If users were to choose strong passwords that contain not only one word, such attacks would quickly downgrade to a simple brute force attack.
- Prophet and foreseer of the great works of God, O greatly renowned Elias, who by your word held back the clouds of rain, intercede for us to the only Loving one.
- Only want you on-ine dating satisfactory to think of, for no one had any objection but to send one word of hope through.
- The book of nature is one and indivisible: it takes in not only the environment but also life, sexuality, marriage, the family, social relations: in a word, integral human development.
- First, the segmentation assigns every word occurrence to only one phrase.
- There is only one word to describe my summer experience: amazing.
- One idea: Encode detail only if necessary If children have small vocabularies, it may not take so much detail todistinguish one word from another.
- Greek reveals the startling truth that a mutual ministry of the word of God to one another is not only the result of the infilling of the Spirit, it is the way we maintain such an infilling.
- Similarly, if one or more characters are deleted, only the first and last character of the word at the location of the deletion is found.
- This word alone, at it’s root inception only gives meaning to the idea that one sex is inferior to another.
- Shake up the next round and only allow players to define one word to the celebrity.
- However just don’t take our word for it, please call to obtain references to customers only too happy to report on our standards of service and the difference to their operations one of our desalinati
- When we lead as shepherds, our confidence is in only one thing: the word of the Great Shepherd, coming through us or, otherwise, to his sheep.
- It is common for disputes to arise when one party unfairly leads the other down the garden path to secure a desired outcome, only to go back on their word.
- Every single step of this project can be described with only one word pleasure.
- There was, however, a caveat: your response could only be one word.
- For example, a word test should never be used in isolation because it assesses only one aspect of early reading behaviours.
- Only one negative word is used to express a negative statement.
- Double negatives should be avoided, as only one negative word is needed to express a negative idea.
- Free online word games are all here on the one and only Shockwave.
- Your choice has the decision to secure the entirety of the focuses accompanied by only one secret word which is normal as the learn code.
- Christ Church, but this was the first time he understood why one gained entrance only after passing through twin sets of swinging doors, not even unpaved ones down in the peninsula part, not a word on
- This means that you can only speak, one word at a time, with your companion when running.
- One can see not only translation of the word, but also how it behaves in the sentence.
- They have the same God, the same Christ, the same word; they only interprett it one way, wee another.
- To the Christian armed for defense in battle, the apostle recommends only one weapon of attack; but it is enough, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
- Later, the auxiliary iifoir was placed after the verh; finally it was joined to the verb, thus forming only one word.
- Use each word only one time.
- The Hebrew word abiyr is used only six times in the OT and all describe the MIGHT one.
- Scraunched and the archaic word strengthed, each ten letters long, are the longest English words that are only one syllable long.
- Yes, I have been to different Bank of America places, only one word comes to mind.
- If there were only one simple word to describe Tokyo, it would be LARGE.
- He kept his word to only serve one term, and was succeeded by Republican rival Abraham Lincoln.
- During the vocabulary group activity, each group can define only one word depending on the reading level of the students in the class.
- In as much as it can be said that Israel prophets and Zimbabwean prophets spoke only the word of the God, it would be a mischief if one ignores the other side of the coin which postulates that some pr
- There is only one word which captures adequately the psychological experiences of this period: shock.
- Here we can see that in order to qualify into the single standard, one also has to be describable only by that one word.
- This is a fluency worksheet for students to practice writing decimal numbers in standard form, word form, and expanded form, given only one of those forms.
- One of activities for me worksheet first grade word game for a printable thank you have free printables only takes a learning.
- Remind the students that no actions are allowed, only one word clues.
- Can’t believe a word women tell you as a small one, DIETHYLPROPION is dearly only a starting dose for splendid pain misfit, and DIETHYLPROPION is a hard time with my oxygen on DIETHYLPROPION and willf
- The questions come in the format of either word pairings or short statements and in each question, it is necessary to choose only one of the two possible answers.
- This phrase is only one word in Hebrew.
- Lawyers will argue, a verdict will be reached and observers around the world will debate, but only one man knows the answer, and he’s sitting in a holding cell, awaiting word on whether he’ll go free
- The old version of Microsoft Office is a native program that allows only one user to use it, and different versions have different ways of finding the previous version of the word document on Mac.
- Definition in English language one meaning for one word in Arabic page not only provides Urdu meaning of Labialis.
- Be aware that, when one learns a language, one usually learns only one meaning for a word.
- The attitude of Christian men towards the Bible is one ofscious that the Bible is the faultless word of the only Wise God.
- To prevent further errors, a complete clause or sentence must be stricken, even if it is intended to correct only one word or a single figure.
- There is only one word to described Webposition Gold and that is Fantastic.
- There could be a number of answers that seem to fit, but only one that corresponds with the capitalized word and will help you pass your test.
- Only Hatman responded, and before long Goldman was in the offices of the Philadelphia Eagles, presenting his one word play-calling system.
- For example: cula miu00e9rcoles tamelo elu00e9ctrico Words that are formed by only one syllable are usually not accentuated, except when there is a word that is spelled in the same way and has a diffe
- Finally, we removed all posts and comments with only one word.
- Bill Maher, in using the N-word, is one of many comedians who do so, and not the only non-black.
- Danny Tidwell I’m going to take Nigel and Mia’s word that Danny’s one of the best dancers the show has ever seen, since we were only granted glimpses of his dancing last night, but I don’t really thin
- And I would only ask that you understand that our lateness is causing you to rush you a little bit, but trust me, we will make sure that no one fails to get their word out.
- Basing it on a wrong assumption that a word has only one fixed meaning.
- While they may appear to only have one word of difference, the process and planning involved with each method varies tremendously.
- As you see, the subject and the predicate may be only one word each, or they may be more than one word.
- Only one word echoed through his mind, she cuddled her daughter on the deck rocker until Molly was sleepy enough to fold into bed!
- Only one word for this.
- Only a fool discounts the word of one who sees the twists of fate.
- After that, the participants saw a word that described one of the objects in the box in their left field of view only.
- But the final word won t be revealed until only one PC remains don t disclose the word wake until then, as it so forcefully suggests the encounter s dreamlike nature.
- Word to fall upon only one article, still he commits enormous blasphemy; for he either separates himself from God as being a deceiver, or he implies that his own created, weak, and limited reason is s
- In these few verses I will bring out only two points: one is the water in the word, and the other is nourishing and cherishing.
- If a word or syllable has only one vowel and it comes between two consonants, the vowel is usually short.
- When finish, you can easily covert the document to word, ppt, pdf and many other graphic formats with only one click.
- They only quote half of the sentence and change one word, yet those two subtle errors completely destroy the meaning of the verse and context of the passage.
- Muslims use the word Tawhid to describe the idea that they believe in only one God.
- The Dictionary includes a signpost definition for a word or expression that is defined elsewhere in these Rules only if the word or expression is used in more than one rule.
- What word begins and ends with an E but only has one letter?
- They can detect and correct error up to one bit per word, but in more than one bit, it can only detect errors.
- Our answer is that the only kind of God who answers the cries of the injured and unloved, who gives purpose and direction to human lives is the one revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, the word made flesh,
Similar words: One Of The Critical Profit-centres, One Is Aware Of, One Of The Best Ones, One Hundredth Of A Second, One Of The Best Singers, One Half Side, One Course Of Action, One Of The Problems Is That, One Means Of Addressing This, One Event Left, One Of My Dream, One Of The Most Accurate Ways, One Of Two Things Can Happen, One Horse Open Sleigh, One Off Consent, One Deal A Day, One Of The Most Liveable, One Has Witnessed, One Week Off, Ones Too Much
Edit: I originally meant some of the repetitive examples below e.g. Bergen bergen bergen or Buffalo buffalo buffalo, however some of the other versions are really interesting where it’s a single word or it’s the same word repeated with one or two filler words included. Really fun to see how creative and strange language is.
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level 1
How about only two letters (well, mostly):
te tetted e tettetett tettet, te tettetett tettek tettese? (did you do this fake deed, you doer of fake deeds?)
level 2
Italian here, and you just repeatedly said «boobs».
level 2
Or, a long sentence using ONE word:
Legeslegmegszentségteleníttethetetlenebbjeitekként.
level 2
Suddenly feeling a lot less positive about my attempt to learn Hungarian.
level 2
If you play it on Google Translate (which automatically recognizes it as Finnish) it sounds like it’s humming a song.
level 1
Wydrze wydrze wydrze wydrze wydrze wydrze.
Which means: Baby otter snatches baby otter from another otter.
// Polish
level 2
Could you break that down word by word? In Czech (if I accept the stretch of using «vydrat» as «snatch») what you said would just be
«vydře vydře vydře vydře»
(Baby otter — snatches — baby otter — from otter)
I can’t really understand how your two extra «wydrze» fit into this.
level 1
vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúraútidyralyklakippuhringur
level 2
I have 2 questions:
-
Is that one word?
-
What does it mean?
level 1
Not sure if it’s the longest, but the only one I know that is pretty long…
Als in Bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen, bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen.
level 2
Isn’t that «als in» part of the sentence?
level 1
Si ton tonton tond ton tonton, ton tonton sera tondu.
level 2
« If your uncle shears your uncle, your uncle will be sheared »
level 2
· 4 yr. ago · edited 4 yr. ago
And «si ta tata tâte ta tata, ta tata sera tâtée.»
If your aunt touch your aunt, your aunt would be touched.
level 1
Macht Macht Macht?
no idea if there are longer ones, it’s kind of hard in German