What is a declarative sentence?

A declarative sentence (also know as a statement) makes a statement and ends with a period. It's named appropriately because it declares or states something.

It might be more helpful, though, to think about what these kinds of sentences don't do. They don't ask questions, make commands, or make statements with emotion. 

Every sentence that you have read on this page so far fits this description.

This sentence doesn't! Can you tell why?

You knew why, right? It must end with a period, not an exclamation mark or a question mark.

Sentence diagrams are neat little things that show us how the words in sentences are related. Every single sentence must have at least a subject and a verb. Here is how you would diagram those two things.

Okay, just for fun, let's ramp things up and look at some more complicated examples.

Please don't get overwhelmed if you've never seen a sentence diagram before. Just sit back and take it all in! (You can learn step-by-step here if you'd like.) Here are three quotes from some old guys.

"A man can not be comfortable without his own approval."

- Mark Twain

"The thing about quotes from the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity."

- Abraham Lincoln

In this next quote, you get two statements!

"A teacher affects eternity. He can never tell where his influence stops."

- Henry Brooks Adams

If you'd like to teach or learn grammar the easy way—with sentence diagrams—check out our Get Smart Grammar Program.

It starts from the very beginning and teaches you grammar and sentence diagramming in easy, bite-size lessons.