This archive report was first published on 25 November 2019.
English language learners are often taught that a sentence should begin with a subject, followed by a verb, and then an object. However, this rule is not always absolute, as seen in the example of a detective being attacked by traffic policemen in Kisumu. In this case, the subject 'detective' is the recipient of the action, rather than the agent.
Furthermore, not all sentences require a subject to initiate an action. For instance, a sentence like 'The blue phone cost him a tidy sum of money' simply states a fact, without any action taking place.
So, while following set rules of English grammar is essential, there are cases where we can use our discretion and analytical thinking to create grammatical sentences. A complete thought is a group of words that express a complete idea, and sentences must follow a specific order to be intelligible, such as subject + verb + object (SVO).
However, not all languages follow this order, and Hindu, for example, follows the Subject + Object + Verb (SOV) order. Additionally, the rules regarding verbs, adverbs, and adjectives can be tricky, particularly when it comes to understanding which modifies what to make grammatical sentences.
For instance, in the sentence 'He learned a hard lesson after looking carefully at the outcome of his experiment', the word 'looking' is a gerund, while 'carefully' is an adverb. To use adverbs correctly, we should modify gerunds, not the other way around.
Finally, the word 'so' can take the place of an adverb, modifying both verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. It can also be used as a conjunction, an adjective, or an interjection, depending on the context.
