Sentences and Clauses: Sentence Functions

In English, sentences have one of four functions: declarative, imperative, interrogative and exclamatory.

Declarative

A declarative sentence tells an idea, and is ended with a period. For example:

I went to the store.

This sentence expresses an idea, therefore making it a declarative sentence.

Imperative

An imperative sentence gives an order or some sort of a direction. Depending upon the intensity, an imperative sentence can end in either a period or an exclamation mark. For example:

Please pick up your shoes.

Pick up your shoes now!

In the first sentence, a period was used because the command was not as intense. In the second, an exclamation mark was used to express emotion. Which punctuation mark to use is up to the writer’s discretion. Notice the subject in those sentences, you, is understood. It is acceptable to have an understood subject in imperative sentences.

Interrogative

An interrogative sentence is a sentence that asks a question. Interrogative questions end with a question mark. For example:

Where is the cat at?

Notice that this sentence begins with the question word where. Many questions, although not all, begin with question words such as where, when, why, what, how, or who.

Exclamatory

An exclamatory sentence is a sentence that expresses a very strong emotion, and ends with an exclamation mark. For example:

Wow!

You are amazing!

Exclamatory sentences often have understood subjects or verbs, such is the case in the first example. In order for exclamatory sentences to be effective, they must be used sparingly. If every single sentence in a piece of writing were to have an exclamation mark, it would lose emphasis.