Question

A sentence is not a sentence without:


a prepositional phrase

a subject

a period

a compound verb

a complement

Answer 1

So, it's best not to simply post answers, but to respond in a way that explores the issues. Simply handing answers out is not going to get anyone anywhere good in the long run.

In any event, there are many many sentences that do not contain prepositional phrases.

Answer 2

I agree with you its just that i was in a hurry and yes also i was wrong, as usual :P

Answer 3

So . . . you edited your answer. Where's the discussion? Where is the encouraging the questioner to think through the question?

Answer 4

The answer is a period. A sentence doesn't necessarily need a subject. All you really need is a verb. For example: "Sit."
The subject (you) is assumed.

Answer 5

But Peeps, wouldn't it have to be any form of punctuation? Not necessarily a period.
. ? !
But considering the other answers, that one does sound the best

Answer 6

Yes, I agree that it can be any form of punctuation. The question is a little off.

Answer 7

Yes, I'm not so keen on this question either, and it's at times like these that I'd love to see the teacher's notes or know something about the material within which this question falls. Relying on any punctuation to indicate whether something is a sentence or not seems highly questionable. Punctuation is a contrived convention after all, and there's plenty of language to be considered quite apart from considerations of written form.

By my way of thinking, there is no complete sentence without a subject (even if that subject is implied, as in the imperative form) and a finite verb. Teaching sentences this way gets you to the heart of what it is that a sentence is and does (names a topic, comments on it) and gets you also to the foundation for beginning to talk about phrases (lacking either a subject or a finite verb), as well as dependent clauses and how they differ from independent ones.

Defining a sentence either as needing always to have a subject (one possible answer here, though not complete*) or needing always to have a period (another, though so superficial) doesn't seem to lay the foundation for anything important.

(* That is, having a subject is necessary, but not sufficient.)

Answer 8

But out of the given list, i considered subject to be the best answer as a sentence must have a topic, must it not?

Answer 9

Yes, I agree: that's the one I'd go with. But though it is necessary, it is not sufficient. So my question is, what's the point of this question? Within what lesson does it lie? Where is this unit of material going, what's it intended to teach?

Answer 10

That is a good question, another thing i might add is where is this being taught, as before living in an English country we did not look at details on types of words we had the basic verb, nouns adverbs and the lot. Now that i live in an Non-English country their is more focus on types of words and whereas i take it from gut instinct they follow rules of types of words, to know if it fits in