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How to Build a Sentence (Generative Grammar and Sentence Variety)
Sentence variety adds interest to writing. Use short sentences to emphasize important, essential, emphatic
points. Use longer sentences to add specific, supporting information. Make every word count. Be sure every
word explains, further clarifies, and develops your thoughts. Don’t forget the six reporter’s questions
(who, what, when, where, why, and how) to help develop details.
1. Start with the simple sentence: noun + verb.
 Give noun(s) then verb(s).
 Check to ensure subject-verb agreement: cat meows or cats meow.
 Here, the subject tells “who” is doing an action, and the verb tells “what” the action is.
2. Add adjectives to give more descriptive detail.
 Put them before a noun, usually.
 Follow a prescribed order. However, if they are interchangeable, or if and can be inserted, a
comma is needed between them: sad, hungry cats or hungry, sad cats.
 Use a hyphen if a noun and/or verb functions as a single adjective (“compound modifier”):
red-faced child, home-wrecking storm, two-car garage, three-year-old son.
≈ Sad, hungry gray-haired cats meow.
3. Add adverbs that tell “how” (noun + verb + complement).
 Put them after a verb, usually.
 They are often a single word, usually ending with “ly” (adverb form).
≈ Sad, hungry gray-haired cats meow loudly.
4. Add prepositions that tell “where.”
 Put them next (usually) as one or more prepositional phrases.
≈ Sad, hungry gray-haired cats meow loudly in the alley.
5. Add more prepositions that tell “when.”
≈ Sad, hungry gray-haired cats meow loudly in the alley on a rainy night.
6. You may reverse (invert) the sentence structure (complement + subject + verb).
 Begin with the “how,” “where,” or “when,” followed by a comma.
≈ Loudly, sad, hungry gray-haired cats meow in the alley on a rainy night.
≈ In the alley on a rainy night, sad, hungry gray-haired cats meow loudly.
≈ On a rainy night, sad, hungry gray-haired cats meow loudly in the alley.
7. Add a non-restrictive relative pronoun clause (“adjective clause”).
 They often follow immediately after the noun they describe.
 They can give secondary information about the noun.
 They usually begin and end with commas.
≈ Sad, hungry gray-haired cats, which are homeless, meow loudly in the alley on a rainy night.
8. Add an appositive.
 They often follow immediately after the noun they describe.
 They can use another noun or noun phrase.
 They usually begin and end with commas.
≈ Sad, hungry gray-haired cats, young orphans, meow loudly in the alley on a rainy night.
9. Add participles or participle phrases (“verbals used as adjectives").
 They often use “ed” or “ing” verbs to describe a noun.
 They can appear before or after the described noun.
 They must be separated from the described noun by a comma.
≈ Cringing in the cold, sad, hungry gray-haired cats, young orphans, meow loudly in the alley on a
rainy night.
Adapted from material by Pam Xanthopoulos, Jackson State Community College, and revised 8-10-02.