Transformation of Sentences
Transformation of a sentence means changing the form of a sentence without changing its meaning or sense.
The First Person Pronouns of the Reported Speech ‘I, my, me, mine, we, our, us, ours’ change according to the Subject of the Reporting Verb.
The Second Person Pronouns of the Reported Speech ‘you, your, yours’ change according to the Object of the Reporting Verb.
The Third Person ‘it, he, him, his, she, her, hers, they, them, their, theirs’ do not change.
When the Reported Verb (said) is in the Past Tense, ‘is’ changes into ‘was’ and ‘now’ into ‘then’.
When the Reported Speech is an Interrogative Sentence ‘said to’ generally changes into ‘asked’ and ‘who’ functions as the connective.
When the Reported Speech is an Imperative Sentence reporting verbs are changed according to the tone of the sentence (advice, prayer, threat etc.) and ‘to’ or ‘not to’ are used as connectors.
Exclamatory sentences are changed like Assertive sentences and ‘very’ or ‘quite’ is used to emphasize the exclaimed fact.
No changes in case of the Universal Truths.
The Reported Speech that states a general fact does not require to be changed.
There are different methods of transforming sentences.
Interchanging kinds of sentences and Interchanging phrases and clauses.
If a sentence has only one subject and one predicate (one independent clause), it is called a simple sentence.
If a sentence is made up of two or more main or principal clauses, it is called a compound sentence. These clauses are always joined by a coordinating conjunction.
If a sentence consists of one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses, it is called a complex sentence. A complex sentence contains a subordinating conjunction.
A simple sentence can be converted into a compound sentence by expanding a word or a phrase into a coordinating clause and by connecting the clauses using a coordinating conjunction.
A simple sentence may be converted into a complex sentence by expanding a word or a phrase into a subordinate clause (noun clause, adverb clause or adjective clause).
A simple sentence can be converted into complex by expanding a noun or a noun phrase into a noun clause.
An adverbial clause is a clause that functions as an adverb. It contains a subject and a predicate.
An adjective clause is a subordinate clause which contains a subject and a verb. It starts with a relative pronoun (who, whom, whose, that or which) or a relative adverb (when, where, why) and functions as an adjective.