Sentence Composing Recap 001 - 100

Students may use this list to look for examples of different types of sentences they can incorporate into their narrative essay:

SIMPLE SENTENCES

#001. To say he was handsome would be a gross exaggeration.

#002. Now began the happiest times that Caspian had ever known.

#003. The idea of cutting and sewing the dress by herself was novel and exciting.

#004. The meat, dry-cured for the feeding of the dogs, hung in the smoke-house.

#005. Four dolphins, swimming side by side, were pushing the raft through the water.

#006. In the town, actually within sight of Charlie’s house, was an enormous chocolate factory!

#007. The one food that Oompa-Loompas longed for more than any other was the cacao bean.

#008. Returning with two strips of meat for the small dragon, Eragon found the dragon sitting on the windowsill, watching the moon.

#009. Over the last few hours, a gusting wind had blown a good deal of loose brush down to the bottom of the hill near the little cemetery.

#010. To hunt the whole mountain until the dragon had caught the thief and had torn and trampled him was the dragon’s one thought.


COMPOUND SENTENCES

#011. The tiny dragon lost interest in Eragon and awkwardly explored the room.

#012. The fierce black eyes of the man and the laughing blue eyes of the goose girl met across the strip of swamp.

#013. Driving snow, a wind that cut like a hot knife, and darkness forced them to look for a camping place.

#014. She and her father unrolled the paper across the kitchen and knelt with a box of crayons between them.

#015. Dudley, who was so large his bottom drooped over either side of the kitchen chair, grinned and turned to Harry.

#016. He felt something cold on his ankles and looked under the tablecloth and saw two more of the huge worms around his ankles.

#017. The four children and the Dwarf went down to the water’s edge, pushed off the boat with some difficulty, and scrambled aboard.

#018. The wicked eyes, the ancient face, the fierce look, the enormous size of the two-and-a-half-ton hippo required very rapid action.

#019. The tall skinny Bean and dwarfish pot-bellied Bunce drove their machines like maniacs, raced the motors, and made the shovels dig at a terrific speed.

#020. One of the creatures high above the trees raised its head to listen, then flew off, picked three flowers from a tree growing near the river, and brought them over to the children.


COMPLEX SENTENCES

#021. As they entered the building, Sadako felt a pang of fear.

#022. His voice seemed sad, although he was trying to be cheerful.

#023. After the other children had disappeared, she remained at her desk, quiet and thoughtful.

#024. All the eyes of Paris were fixed on the Eiffel Tower, which slowly drooped over like soft rubber.

#025. As the door opened, Fortinbras streaked in, panting from exhaustion, wet and shiny as a seal.

#026. They all saw it this time, a whiskered furry face which had looked out at them from behind a tree.

#027. All in all, he thought everyone would be much happier if he sat in the closet, but, unfortunately, his desk didn’t fit.

#028. When the seal was dead, the bear attended first to herself and got rid of the wet from her coat before it could freeze.

#029. She waved her hand to land a mock spank on Gilly’s bottom,  but after her hand swept the air, Gilly’s bottom along with the rest of her was well down the hall.

#030.  Sometimes now, in the hush of the night, when the moon was full and the light lay in silver bands across the pandanus mats, and all the village was sleeping, Mafatu awoke and sat upright.


QUOTATION SENTENCES

#031.  Eragon dropped his eyes, abashed.  “I’m sorry.”

#032. “A promise is a promise,” Hermione reminded Harry bossily.

#033. “Don’t be,” said Brom as he shifted his arm.  “It happens to everyone.”

#034. “Colonel Graff,” he said, “I just want to go back and swim in the lake.”

#035.  “Here is the Mirror of Galadriel,” she said. “I have brought you here so you may look in it, if you will.”

#036.  “I am going to transmit the memory of snow,” the old man said, and placed his hands on Jonas’s bare back.

#037.  “How come you like fights, Darry?” I asked, looking up at him as he stood behind me, leaning in the kitchen doorway.

#038.  “Blast it, Jonny,” Dally growled as we flew along the red road, “why didn’t you think of turning yourself in five days ago?”

#039.  Johnny had been quietly finishing his fifth barbecue sandwich, but now he announced: “We’re goin’ back and turn ourselves in.”

#040.  Peter let his hand tremble a little, and he said, “If you think I should stop, I think I might be able to keep things under control this time.  I really do.”


DASH SENTENCES

#041 I saw my seat – the only empty one in the room.

#042 Their faces either look grim or kind – depending on the husband's disposition.

#043 The dog was not much to look at – a mixture of Georgia redbone hound and bulldog.

#044 The apartment was on the top floor – a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom,  and a bath.

#045 Even Shuya Nanahara let off steam by listening to that illegally imported rock music – it never went beyond that though.

#046 You're so busy worrying about the Divergent – like my mom –  that you forget to worry about what the leaders are doing.

#047 When I passed the Radley Place for the fourth time that day – twice at a full gallop – my gloom had deepened to match the house.

#048 As for the terrors ahead – for Jess did not fool himself that they were all behind him – you just have to stand up to your fear and not let it squeeze you white.

#049 He beat the creature off with his hands – it was trying to poison him to keep him quiet, as small spiders do to flies – until he remembered his sword and drew it out.

#050 If every single person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than necessary -- the world really would be a better place.


COLON SENTENCES

#051. I gave her happy memories:  a ride on a merry-go-round, a kitten to play with, a special toy.

#052. In Maycomb, grown men stood outside in the front yard for only two reasons:  death and politics.

#053. By the dawn, the house smelled of Sunday:  chicken frying, bacon sizzling, and smoke sausages baking.

#054. Animals took shape: yellow giraffes, blue lions, pink antelopes, lilac panthers cavorting in crystal substance.

#055. Then the sounds of the forest returned:  the first tentative croak of a tree frog, the buzz of one cicada, and then the full chorus.

#056. In my stillness, I began to notice the animals: strange birds with brilliant plumage, tree lizards with flickering blue tongues, and something that looked like a cross between a rat and a possum.

#057. Like most first-time authors, I was filled with hope and despair upon the book’s publication:  hope that the book might succeed beyond my youthful dreams; despair that I had failed to say anything worth saying.

#058. Not far away was Gollum’s island, of which Bilbo knew nothing, and there in his hiding-place he kept a few wretched oddments, and one very beautiful thing, very beautiful, very wonderful: a ring, a golden ring, a precious ring.

#059. They were like the sounds heard in a dream you have again and again at certain critical turns of life:  the dream of being unprepared for a big exam, the dream of being naked in public, the dream of falling, the dream in which you hurry toward a corner in some strange city, sure your fate lies on the far side.

#060. Under the lightning that flamed in the skies, everything below stood out in clear-cut and shadowless distinctiveness:  the bending trees; the billowy river, white with foam; the driving spray of spume flakes; the dim outlines of the high bluffs on the other side, glimpsed through the drifting clouds; and the slanting veil of rain.


SEMICOLON SENTENCES

#061  I try to see only the good in him; I try.

#062  Food is a huge problem; so is the situation with the water.

#063  The sound was like the scream of a rabbit caught in an owl’s talons ; my flesh crawled.

#064  He has the audience from the get-go, though; I can hear them laughing, shouting out.

#065  That's the good part of dying; when you've nothing to lose, you run any risk if you want.

#066  Today was the day; today was the day when they would realize what Zaphod had been up to.

#067  Ender did not like to cry and rarely did; now, in less than a day, he had done it three times.

#068  Looking into her eyes was like looking out of a grave from the inside; I was buried in the terror and despair and agony of her gaze.

#069  With the force of a bullet, the wad of chewing gum shot out of the keyhole and straight down Peeve’s left nostril; he whirled upright and zoomed away, cursing.

#070  Parzival, the #1 on the scoreboard, was world famous, and had never felt this way before, even when he played Aech; Art3mis, his rival, was level 50, with money to burn and experience galore.


PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE SENTENCES

#071.  Within two minutes, or even less, he had forgotten all his troubles.

#072. The morning was still, with no movement in the wide and lonely land.

#073. On the whole enormous prairie, there was no sign that any other human being had ever been there.

#074. Jonas, from his place in the balcony with the Elevens, searched the auditorium for a glimpse of his father.

#075.  The man in black, on a coal-black horse, galloped up to the wall gate and disappeared like a great dark shadow.

#076.  Terrified, Bilbo tried to run faster, but suddenly he struck his toes on a snag in the floor, and fell flat, with his little sword under him.

#077.  Janet and the Tiger went racing back, over the country and over the town, over houses and churches and mountains and rivers, across the park and along the street.

#078.  The fire made him think of home, of food and warmth and company, of faces around the evening circle, of the drone of old men's voices, telling their endless tales of daring.

#079. To his home, to his comfort, to the bringing up of their children, to the garden and her greenhouse, to the local church, and to her patchwork quilts, Margaret had happily given her life.

#080. They tiptoed from room to room, afraid to speak above a whisper and gazing with a kind of awe  at the unbelievable luxury, at the beds  with their feather mattresses, the looking-glasses, the horsehair sofa, the Brussels carpet, the lithograph  of Queen Victoria over the drawing-room mantelpiece.


ADJECTIVE PHRASE SENTENCES

#081. A woman of fifty or so, plump with frizzy gray hair, came toward them.

#082. Angry with themselves because they were frightened, they jumped first on Teft.

#083. Laughter, loud and warm from their long and intimate relationship, filled the room.

#084. I stared at the trees, aware of an eerie silence descending from the forest.

#085. A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all round it.

#086. Jemmy gorged himself, anxious to be off and not certain when he would eat again.

#087. The raft continued on, and they smelled a peculiar odor, sweet and nauseating at the same time.

#088. Always meticulously neat, six-year-old Little Man never allowed dirt or tears or stains to mar anything he owned.

#089. Clad in royal purple and ermine, he was seated upon a throne which was at the same time both simple and majestic.

#090. Certain of herself, certain of her friends in the house, certain of her voice and her success, Carlotta flung herself into her part without restraint of modesty.


ADVERB PHRASE SENTENCES

#091 Now, cautiously and slowly, he got up.

#092 In the fishpond, the hippo belched, not softly.

#093 Slowly, very slowly, the snake raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.

#094 After ten minutes or so we got back in the car and drove out to the main road slowly and carefully.

#095 Finally, when he stood up, slowly and stiffly, his face was as hard and tight as wood, and his eyes were hard.

#096 Griffin was light and fast, his gloves a red blur tapping away at Alfred's face, easily and steadily as rain on a roof.

#097 Jonas, suddenly and grimly, remembered the time in his childhood when he had been chastised for misusing a word.

#098 On and on, they drove through the darkness, and though the rain stopped, the wind rushed by and whistled and made strange sounds.

#099 The gigantic snake was nearing Frank, and then, incredibly, miraculously, it passed him, following the spitting, hissing noises made by the cold voice beyond the door.

#100 If Sam had looked back, he might have seen not far below Gollum turn again, and then with a wild light of madness glaring in his eyes come, swiftly but warily, creeping on behind, a slinking shadow among the stones.