Question

34 varying sentence beginnings
varying the beginnings of your sentences can help you maintain your audiences interest.
effective writers vary the ways in which they begin their sentences. when too many of your sentences
begin with the subject of the sentence (a pronoun, a noun, or a noun phrase), your audience may lose
interest. consider beginning some of your sentences with elements such as adverbs, prepositional phrases,
participial phrases, and infinitive phrases. this chart shows examples of various sentence beginnings
subject (pronoun) i finally set a plan to achieve my goals.
adverb finally, i set a plan to achieve my goals.
prepositional phrase after class, i finally set a plan to achieve my goals.
participial phrase worried about achieving my goals, i finally set a plan.
infinitive phrase to achieve my goals, i finally set a plan.
practice a identifying varied sentence beginnings
read each sentence. circle the sentence beginning. then, on the line provided, identify the part of
speech or type of phrase used to start the sentence.
example: until yesterday, i had never been to a sushi bar. ______________
answer: until yesterday i had never been to a sushi bar. prepositional phrase

1. during the summer, i learned to water-ski. ________________________
2. to earn spending money, nadine walks the neighbors dog. ________________________
3. carefully, laura set the crystal vase on the shelf. ________________________
4. chicken and dumplings is my mothers specialty. ________________________
5. distracted by the kittens, the toddler forgot about his broken toy. ________________________
6. cars cannot travel beyond this gate. ________________________
7. forgetting that it was saturday, sean got dressed for school. ________________________
8. after the game, we will stop at the bank. ________________________
9. to be out of the woods before dark, we had to leave immediately. ________________________

Explanation:

1. "During the summer" is a prepositional phrase (starts with the preposition "during").
2. "To earn spending money" is an infinitive phrase (starts with "to" + verb).
3. "Carefully" is an adverb (describes the verb "set").
4. "Chicken and dumplings" is a noun phrase (subject of the sentence).
5. "Distracted by the kittens" is a participial phrase (starts with a past - participle "distracted").
6. "Cars" is a noun (subject of the sentence).
7. "Forgetting that it was Saturday" is a participial phrase (starts with a present - participle "forgetting").
8. "After the game" is a prepositional phrase (starts with the preposition "after").
9. "To be out of the woods before dark" is an infinitive phrase (starts with "to" + verb).

Answer:

1. prepositional phrase
2. infinitive phrase
3. adverb
4. noun phrase
5. participial phrase
6. noun
7. participial phrase
8. prepositional phrase
9. infinitive phrase