brendan-c on flickr John ate a slice of pepperoni pizza, and drank a bottle of beer. If that sentence doesn't make you involuntarily scowl, then you do not have a proper understanding of commas. Yet ...

Happy is the main lexical predicate here. It takes one argument: an experiencer--John. Tall takes one argument: a theme: Mary. (12) *John is being tall. (13) *Mary is being fond of red roses. (14) ...

Understanding sentence structure and grammar rules is the secret to writing and speaking with clarity. From subjects and predicates to complex clauses, knowing the patterns helps ideas flow naturally.

Last week, we started discussing the differences between a phrase, clause and a sentence. We defined a phrase as a group of words without a subject and a predicate, though standing together to form a ...