Sentence length..?

Question

This is going to seem like a dumb question so please dont poke fun. ^^
I am comparing sentence length but I'm confused to what counts as a sentence

This for an example


The committee, chaired by the Conservative peer Lord Wakeham, said: " Evidence suggests the health risks associated with passive smoking are relatively minor."

Would that count as 22 words or 10?
because you can some huge quotes and I'm not sure if they count a sentence. =(

Thanks guys! But here is another one for you..


But the judge pressed on, raising his own voice louder as Saddam ranted further, yelling: “You are not in a position to decide. Death to the invaders. Go to hell with your law"

Does this count as one sentnece? because it has those full stop pauses in the the quote.
These full stop pauses

Answer 1

I would count that as a 22 word sentence. Just because part has quotes it doesn't take it outside the sentence structure. Most people say a sentence should have a subject, verb and usually an object.

Answer 2

With your additional information, I would class this as one sentence as the quotation is still part of what you are saying (please excuse the pun!)

However, if you are quoting what Saddam said on its own, what he said would be 3 sentences.

It makes it clearer if you put a full stop at the end of the sentence when using quotations.

From your first quote (what I can see when typing this answer!), I would write it as:

The committee, chaired by the Conservative peer Lord Wakeham, said "Evidence suggests the health risks associated with passive smoking are relatively minor.".

This is because you could finish the sentence with another statement:

......relatively minor.", which may or may not be accurate.

I hope this helps you (and I cannot be bothered to type the wakeham statement again, hence the dots!)!

Answer 3

You can make your sentence as long as you like. Some sentences are 400 words long. There is even one sentence that is over 40 pages long, but that is extreme, even by the highest literary standards. As long as a sentence is grammatically correct, all the way through, it only ends when the speaker (or writer) chooses to end it. I could explain all the rules to you in great detail, but you would have to pay me $150 an hour to do that :-) For now, just take it from me that a sentence is defined by structural and grammatical rules, not by word count.

Answer 4

Articles and conjunctions as counted as words even if it is a single letter only. This is an official rule; so the word count is 22. The quote is still part of the sentence.

Answer 5

A sentence can be any length but must include at one finite verb, eg 'speak' 'walk'. If it only has a participle or an infinitive then it is a phrase and not a sentence. For example, 'to be or not to be' is not a sentence but 'I read a good book today' is.

Answer 6

I think 22 because, in the basic sense, they are all enclosed within the full-stops. Also, if you're thinking about gleaning the sense of what's being said, it's the whole phrase (sentence) you have to keep in mind.

Answer 7

It's 22; everything before the end punctuation mark is part of the sentence.

Answer 8

It's a 22-word parenthetical sentence with a quote. I wouldn't consider it a run-on sentence.

Answer 9

I'd say 22. If you want to see some really long sentences, pick up any book by Wm S Burroughs!

Answer 10

22 in my book