What is a two-part sentence? Let's deal with terminology with you. As you know, all of them according to the composition of the main members are divided into one-part and two-part. The grammatical basis of the two-part sentence has two main members: the subject and the predicate, the one-part - only one, which is called the special term - "the main member of the one-part sentence".
Types of double sentences
In turn, the two-part in accordance with the type of predicate are divided into nominal and verbal, which are further divided. So, among the two-part verb sentences there are conjugate-verb (for example, "The child laughed" ) and infinitive ( "The child - laugh!" ); among the nominative sentences stand out with a predicate, pronounced adjective ( “The night is surprisingly bright” ; “This noise is forest” ) or a noun in the form of any case ( “It seemed to be about twenty years old” ).
Incomplete two-part
In order to accurately determine what a two-part sentence is, one should understand the difference between an incomplete and a one- part sentence .
An incomplete sentence is one in which one of the members (main or secondary) is omitted. They are often used in colloquial speech. Examples of sentences of this type are common in dialogs.
- What did they give him?
- Kitten.
In this dialogue, the second sentence is incomplete. Its meaning is understood by us from the context. The addendum “to him” was omitted and the predicate “presented”. The full sentence would look like this: "They gave him a kitten."
Signs of an incomplete offer
If the predicate or subject is omitted in a two-part sentence, then it can be confused with the one-part. To avoid this, you need to know the signs of an incomplete offer.
1. It feels the omission of a word, which in this case can be restored from the situation of speech or from previous sentences.
So, the presence of a dash can tell us that one of the members is missing. Consider, for example, the following sentence: "My sister wants to go to the theater, and I want to go to hockey." The second part of this sentence is with the omission of the predicate (“I want to go”). However, not all dash cases are incomplete sentences. So, for example, "A bug is a dog" is complete.
2. The proposal contains secondary members, which can only be attributed to the missed member.
- Where are you going?
- I'm shopping.
In this example, the circumstance “(behind) purchases” can refer only to the missed predicate “go” or “go”, therefore this is an incomplete two-part sentence.
3. There is no subject, and the predicate is represented by a verb in the form of a third person singular in the future or present tense or in the singular form of the past tense. The exception is impersonal verbs (such as “forbidden”, “relied on”, “shining”), as well as personal ones in an impersonal meaning (“darkening”). We give the following two-part sentence with the omission of the subject as an example.
The athlete was well prepared for the competition. Immediately defeated all competitors.
Here in the second sentence there is a pass of the subject "he". This example is an incomplete two-part sentence.
Context value
Sometimes it is only by context that one can determine whether a proposal is two-part incomplete or one-part. So, consider, for example, a typical case, which is used in two different situations.
- What kind of music sounds?
- They play the piano.
Here the second sentence is vaguely personal, one-part, since it is impossible to determine the person who performs the action.
- What do your students do?
- They play the piano.
In this case, an incomplete two-part is presented, since it refers to specific students of one of the interlocutors. What is a two-part sentence, we determined at the beginning of the article.
Predictable - a past tense verb
A sentence with a predicate, which is expressed by a past tense verb and a plural, can also be either incomplete two-part or indefinitely personal one-part, depending on the context.
It’s dark in your house because another was built in front of it.
In this complex sentence, the second part is an indefinitely personal one-part sentence, since it is impossible to determine the person who committed the action.
- What have you done this year?
- Built a house.
In this context, it is clear that the speaker (and, possibly, his family) performed the action, therefore this proposal cannot be called vaguely personal. This is an example of an incomplete two-part.
We hope that we clearly explained what a two-part proposal is and how to distinguish it from a one-part proposal. More detailed information can be found in any textbook of Russian grammar, in the "syntax" section. There you can also find examples of sentences of these two types.