Page 17 - New Grammar with a Smile 6

♦ Interrogative sentences

In interrogative sentences, the subject follows the auxiliary
verb. For example,
• Does Maya need another blanket?
• Have we met before?
• Did the dog bark?

To find the subject in an interrogative sentence, we should change the question
into a declarative sentence. For example,
• Maya needs another blanket.
• We have met before.
• The dog barked.

♦ Imperative sentences

In imperative sentences, the subject is you, but it is not
usually written or spoken. For example,
• (You) Take this book.
• (You) Look at that nightingale.
• (You) Sow the seeds in November.

♦ Exclamatory sentences

In exclamatory sentences, the subject comes before the verb. For example,
• How beautiful she looks!
• How amazing the Taj Mahal is!

To find the subject, we should change the exclamatory sentence into a declarative
sentence. For example,
• She looks very beautiful.
• The Taj Mahal is amazing.

♦ Sometimes sentences take it as their subject. This is usually used in
non-imperative sentences where the subject is not directly attached to
the verb, but is placed elsewhere in the sentence.
• It is a bright sunny day.

• It is going to rain today.

It is a dummy pronoun and acts just like any other noun/pronoun in a sentence.
Unlike the ordinary pronoun it, dummy it pronoun refers to nothing specific.
Similarly, we use there as a dummy subject in structures like ‘there is’ and
‘there are’. For example,
• There is a man outside the office who wants to talk to you.
• There are quite a few souvenir shops outside the Taj Mahal.

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