Sentence Variation

Sentence Variation Models

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1.       Begin with the subject. 

Dad was a man with a mission that day.

2.       Begin with an article and a subject.

The car was old and rusty, but my father was determined to get it running.

3.       Begin with an adjective and the subject. 

Little wrinkles of worry riddled my anxious forehead as I headed out the door.

4.       Begin with an adverb before the subject. 

Abruptly, surreptitiously, almost stealthily it began to rain.

5.       Begin with a prepositional phrase used as an adverb.

In the sky, clouds began to form.

6.       Begin with a present participial phrase.  

Coming down in buckets, the rain soon saturated the ground.

Coming down in buckets, the ground was saturated by the rain.

7.       Begin with a past participial phrase. 

Soaked with water, John sloshed through the mud.

8.       Begin with an absolute phrase (or more than one). 

His long journey ended, his weary feet aching, his bones icy with the cold, John entered the warm, cozy house.

9.       Begin with an infinitive as the subject. 

To relax with a cup of hot tea was Mary’s only desire. [Intransitive verb]

10.   Begin with a gerund or gerund phrase as a subject.

Reading a good book is the best thing to do on a cold, gloomy, rainy day.

11.   Begin with an adverbial clause. 

While the roast was cooking, my mother sliced the tomatoes for the salad.

While Nero was playing on his fruit, Rome was burning.

12.   Postpone the subject. 

There are in all this darkness a few rays of light.

13.   Begin with a noun clause. 

That his rocket would never get off the ground was an unbearable thought for the young scientist.

14.   Begin with a verb. 

Rise the sun did on that awful day.

15.   Begin with a conjunction. 

But how could this be?

16.   Begin with the object of the verb. 

That job, no one wanted. [No one wanted that job.]

17.   Begin with an interjection. 

Ah, that’s what they mean by a firm mattress.

18.   Begin with a transitional word or phrase. [Discourse marker]

In fact, there were no oranges left.

19.   Begin with a predicate adjective.  

Fierce was the storm that night. [That night the storm was fierce.]

20.   Begin with a subordinate clause. 

Although the day was fair and cloudless, he took no pleasure in it.

21.   Begin with two or more prepositional phrase.

In the castle of the monster with the hideous face, a beautiful princess languished.

22.   Write a periodic sentence in which the sentence base (independent clause) comes last.  Surrounded by angry villagers, poked and prodded with angry pitchforks, frightened by the sharp orders of the guards, weakened by hunger and thirst, the terrified monster cowered in the town square.

23.   Write an antithetical sentence that contains two statements which are balanced, but opposite.

Great works of art show humankind at its greatest, not at its happiest; they illuminate moments of decision, not moments of ease.

24.   Write a sentence using asyndeton, the deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of related clauses.

I saw the mountain; I climbed the mountain; I conquered the mountain.

25.   Write a sentence using anaphora, the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses. 

We will pursue him into the mountains; we will pursue him into the desert; we will pursue him down valleys and into canyons; we will pursue him to the ends of the earth.