Sentence With One Clause

This topic group covers the most fundamental building block of English: the simple sentence, also known as a single clause. Before you can analyze complex structures, you must be able to confirm that every sentence has the two essential components it needs to be complete: a Subject and a Verb.

A primary strategy on the TOEFL test is to present sentences where the subject or verb is missing, or where "distractors" are used to confuse the test-taker.

In this section, you will master the foundational skills needed to identify these core components correctly. You will learn to:

1. Find the Subject and Verb: Quickly verify that both a complete subject and a complete verb are present in the sentence.
2. Avoid Subject Traps: Learn to identify and ignore Objects of Prepositions and Appositives. These are phrases that are often placed near the subject to trick you into thinking they are the subject.
3. Avoid Verb Traps: Learn to distinguish a true sentence verb from Present Participles (verb-ing) and Past Participles (verb-ed/en), which often look like verbs but are functioning as adjectives.