✽ Sentence Types ~ Examples from 'Danny the Champion of the World'

These are a selection of sentence types I picked up whilst working in English primary schools; all the quotes below are taken from Roald Dahl’s ‘Danny the Champion of the World’:

☞ 3A: A beautifully developed descriptive sentence, using 3 or more adjectives or adverbs: 'He had brilliant blue eyes and when he thought of something funny, his eyes would flash and if you looked carefully, you could actually see a tiny little golden spark dancing in the middle of each eye.'

☞ Named Person First: Uses an embedded clause within a sentence to add information about a person or thing: ‘Captain Lancaster, known sometimes as Lankers, was a horrid man.’

☞ Show Not Tell: Using descriptive language to suggest how a character is feeling: ‘I swear I’ll kill him!’His eyes were blazing, and all the colour had gone from his face.’

☞ Descriptive List: A list separated with commas (,), semi-colons (;) can be used when adding more description: ‘For furniture, we had two chairs and a small table, and those, apart from a tiny chest of drawers, were all the home comforts we possessed.’

☞ Outside / Inside: Gives a more complex view of a character's feelings, by contrasting outside actions with inner feelings: ‘I managed not to cry out loud but I couldn’t keep the tears from pouring down my cheeks.’

☞ Short & Snappy: Quick and sharp - adding tension and drama: 'I froze and kept listening. Yes, there it was again. I ran towards the sound. "Dad!" I shouted. "It's Danny! Where are you?"

✽ 'Danny the Champion of the World' is one of Roald Dahl's most fantastic books. His storytelling and language is brilliant throughout! Above right, is the 1980's copy we had at home, with terrific illustrations by Jill Bennett.