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19. We have found that we use sentences to express our thoughts. But we also find that we use these sentences in different ways for different purposes. Can you notice any difference in the following sentences?

Two classes have always existed.

To which class do you belong?

Join your class in the struggle.

When I say, Two classes have always existed, I am making a simple assertion, stating what I know or believe to be true.

When I say, To which class do you belong? I am asking a question.

When I say, Join your class in the struggle, I am giving a command or making a request.

20. These three kinds of sentences are called assertive, interrogative and imperative.

An assertive sentence states a fact or an opinion.

An interrogative sentence asks a question.

An imperative sentence gives a command, makes a request or expresses a wish.

21. Any of these three kinds of sentences may be exclamatory; that is, it may express surprise, excitement, impatience, or some other emotion. For example:

Hurrah! Freedom is coming!

This is an assertion expressed as an exclamation.

Oh! Why should war continue?

Here we have a question in the form of an exclamation.

Come! Keep your courage up.

In this, we have a command, an imperative sentence, expressed in the form of an exclamation.

An exclamatory sentence expresses surprise, excitement or some other emotion.

In these three forms of sentences, the assertive, the interrogative and the imperative, together with the exclamatory, we are able to express every thought and feeling which demands expression, either for practical or artistic purposes.

The sentence is the basis of spoken and written language and as we trace its development we trace the history of the evolution of man and the growth of his power of expression, as he has developed his powers of mind.

22. Every sentence must begin with a capital letter.

Every assertive and imperative sentence should end with a period.

Every interrogative sentence should end with a question mark.

The word in an exclamatory sentence which expresses strong emotion is followed by an exclamation point. The sentence itself if in interrogative form should be followed by a question mark; if in the assertive or the imperative form it may be followed either by an exclamation point or a period.

Exercise 1

Mark the assertive sentences among the following with an a in the blank space. Mark the interrogative sentences with a q for question; the imperative sentences with a c for command; and the exclamatory with an e for exclamation.

1. ...... Books are the true levelers.

2. ...... Put not your trust in princes.

3. ...... To err is human; to forgive divine.

4. ...... What are the rights of a child?

5. ...... Seize common occasions and make them great.

6. ...... Not until all are free, is any free.

7. ...... Freemen! Shall not we demand our own?

8. ...... Is a world of happiness but a Utopian dream?

9. ...... He who will not work, shall not eat.

10. ...... Strike at the polls for freedom!

11. ...... Do the majority want social justice?

12. ...... A friend is the hope of the heart.

13. ...... How beautiful is the vision of peace!

14. ...... Acquire the thinking habit.

15. ...... Is it glorious to die for our country?

16. ...... Lo! Women are waking and claiming their own!

17. ...... Claim your right to the best.

18. ...... What is the highest good?

19. ...... Workers of the world, unite!

20. ...... To remain ignorant is to remain a slave.