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Active Sentence: Sometimes called active voice, a sentence where the
subject does the action. Ex: I ate (S–V). The subject did something (usu-
ally on a DO).
P
assive Sentence: Sometimes called passive voice, a sentence where
the subject receives the action. The apple was eaten (S–helping
verb–main verb). Something was done to the subject. The passive never
takes a DO.
Usually, the subject in a sentence is a noun. Analyze the next two sen-
tences.
The old people counted their money.
Art.–adj.–S–V–pro.–DO
Art. = article
Adj. = adjective
S = subject
V = verb
Pro. = pronoun
DO = direct object
The old counted their money.
Art.–S–V–pro.–DO
Although old is not a noun, it is the subject in this sentence. Why?
Because the word
old moved in the sentence. We omitted the word people,
so
old took the position of subject. Old is still an adjective, just as I am still
a father during the time at work, but my function changes, because my
environment changes. The word
old is therefore acting as a noun, so it can
function as the subject of the sentence.

It takes a little while to begin to recognize the similarity of certain
grammatical and syntactical structures in sentences. You can do it. If you
have problems, stop. Try to find the subject and the verb; after you do
that, you have won half of the battle. Most importantly, take your time.
You are not in a race. Relax.
Components of Sentences
Phrases: A phrase is one or more words with a specific duty in a sentence.
The noun in the following sentence is a noun phrase.
The dog ate.
The phrase can be a group of words with one specific duty. The follow-
ing verbs constitute a verb phrase.
I had been walking for quite some time.
These words, all of them, act as one unit in the sentence, called a syn-
tactic unit.
Had been walking is, of course, three words, but they must work
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together to fulfill the duty of telling a specific time. It is common for dif-
ferent parts of speech to work together as one unit to fulfill a specific duty
or function in the sentence. In that case, one word is the leader, called the
headword, and it determines the duty of the whole unit, much like a squad
leader in the army.
The big, fat, stupid camel walked across the road.
(The) big, fat, and stupid are adjectives. (An article, called a determiner,
is considered a subcategory of adjective, or an adjectival.)
However,
camel is a noun. Because all of the adjectives describe the
noun, the entire phrase is a noun phrase, with the noun as the headword,
the leader of the group. The duty, or the syntactic function, of the unit is

Clauses
As we said before, there are two main types of clauses: (1) independ-
ent
, consisting of a subject and a verb and able to stand alone as a gram-
matical entity;
(2) dependent, usually consisting of a subject and a verb
and unable to stand alone as a grammatical entity. A DC depends on an
IC to make sense; therefore it is called a dependent or subordinate clause.
A subordinate clause usually has a subordinator at the beginning of it,
thereby making an otherwise independent clause dependent.
I was a boy = IC
When
I was a boy = DC
(Sub.)
There are several basic constituents of sentences. These con-
stituents are units sometimes made of the phrases and clauses seen above.
1. Subject
2. Verb
3. Objects: Direct and Indirect
4. Complements: Subject and Object
I hit the ball.
S–V–DO
A DO only comes after an action verb, called a dynamic verb. The
action is transferred from the subject to the DO: in other words, the sub-
ject does the action (of the action verb) to the DO.
I kicked the door.
S–V–DO
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