Communicative Types of Sentences

According to their role in the process of communication sentences are divided into four types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory sentences.

These divisions are usually applied to simple sentences. In a complex sentence the comminucative type depends upon that of the principal clause. In a compound sentence coordinate clauses may belong to different communicative types.

Declarative sentences

Declarative sentences, or statements, form the bulk of monological speech and the greater part of conversation. A statement may be positive (affirmative) or negative:

I have just come from a business trip.

I haven’t seen my sister yet.

Grammatically, statements are characterized by the direct order of words.

A statement can be emphasized by the auxiliary verbs do, does, did put in front of the base form of the verb:

I do feel sorry for Roger.

Besides their main function of information carriers, statements may be used with the force of questions, commands and exclamations:

I wonder why he is so late.

You mustn’t talk back to your parents.