Vowel - a, e, i, o, u . Words that start with a
vowel sound take an in the singular. e.g.
an essay ,
an oral presentation ,
an article . However, a word may start with a vowel but have
a
consonant sound. In that case it takes a in the singular. e.g.
a university 1. Units of meaning (from big to small) Document - A document is a written, or sometimes oral, presentation of facts, fiction, ideas or
opinions. It is or can be considered as complete and comprehensible in its own right.
Paragraph - Paragraphs are the principal sub-divisions of documents. In standard descriptive
or declarative documents, a paragraph is a group of sentences with the same theme. Though
there is no rule, grammarians tend to agree that a paragraph will normally have between two
and eight sentences, with an optimal length of 3 to 5 sentences. Longer documents may be
divided into larger subdivisions such as chapters or sections or even books.
Sentence - A sentence is the basic unit that constitutes a declarative or interrogative statement.
With the exception of single-word imperatives or interrogations (such as
Look! or
What? ) or
single-word answers (such as
Me. ), a sentence contains at least two words and consists of a
subject and a
predicate . A simple sentence contains a single clause. A compound sentence
contains
more
than
one
clause.
Single word sentences can usually be considered as
ellipses , i.e. the contraction of a longer
sentences. For instance
Look! really means something like
Look at that or
Look at me.
