What Is a Sentence?
A sentence is a group of words that tells a complete idea. Every sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!). Without these, words are just a list — not a sentence.
Worked examples
Is this a sentence? — 'The dog ran fast.'
It starts with a capital letter (The), tells a whole idea (a dog ran fast), and ends with a full stop. It is a sentence.
Answer: yes
Is this a sentence? — 'big red ball'
It is just three words about a ball. There is no capital letter at the start, no ending mark, and it doesn't tell us what the ball does. It is NOT a sentence.
Answer: no
Tips
- •Sentences always start with a CAPITAL letter.
- •Sentences always end with a . ? or !
- •A sentence has to tell a whole idea, not just be a list of words.
- •Read it out loud — does it sound finished? If yes, it's probably a sentence.
Key words
sentencecapital letterfull stopidea