Optative Sentence – Meaning, Structure & Examples
Optative Sentence
The optative sentence expresses the wishes or prayers, desires, etc. In other words, optative sentences are those that express our wishes and desires that deal with our mood.
Note: The wishes and desires can be negative or positive.
The expressions of what one desires or looks forward can be called any of the following.
- A wish
- A prayer
- A curse
- A desire
An exclamation mark (!) or sometimes a full stop (.) is used to indicate the end of the optative sentence.
Examples:
- May God bless her with a child. (Prayer)
- I Wish I were an astronaut! (Wish)
- May he lead a joyous life! (Blessing)
- I wish I had been more cautious! (Wish)
Structure of Optative Sentences
-
May/+N/P+V-1+ phrase or expressions
Example: May God bless you.
-
Long+V-1+N/P+ phrases or expressions
Example: Long live the princess!
-
Wish+N/P+ phrase or expressions
Wish you a happy, peaceful life!
Other Structure:
This type of sentence follows a different pattern from the above rules. As a result, you need to identify what sense the sentence makes and decide if it can be an optative sentence or not.
Examples of other structures:
- All the best for all your future endeavors.
- Wish you a safe and healthy life!
- Have a nice day!
Optative – Direct to Indirect Speech
The optative structure for changing direct to indirect speech is as follows:
- The reporting verb in the direct speech is changed into a wish or prayer in the reported speech.
- The optative form is changed into a statement.
- The conjunction “that” is used in the indirect speech
- ‘That’ is used as a linking word after the reporting verb.
Examples:
- She said to him, “May you be happy.”
She wished him that he might be happy.
- Mr. John said, “May Jesus save us.”
Mr. John prayed that Jesus might save them.
Optative sentences appear in between irregular sentences as well. For example, this happens when someone wishes for something.
They can be used with subject-verb inversions.
Example:
- Long live the mighty king.
Related topics
Exploring the World of Adjectives: Types, Usage, and Examples
What are Parts of Speech? Parts of speech determine words’ grammatical and semantic position in a sentence. Activity time The parts of speech are nouns, adverbs, conjunctions, pronouns, interjections, adjectives, articles, prepositions, and verbs. Identify the parts of speech of the underlined words in the following sentences. White- Adjective Big- Adjective Exciting- Adjectives New- […]
Read More >>
Memoir Writing: Basic Elements, Structures, and Types
Memoir: A memoir is a narrative written from an author’s perspective about a particular facet of his/her own life. ‘Memoir’ word comes from the French word ‘memoire’, which means ‘memory’ or ‘reminiscence’. Example Night: Elie Wiesel gives an account of how he survived his teenage years at Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during World War […]
Read More >>
Identification of Main Idea in Fiction and Non-fiction
Every story or paragraph or non-fictional text has at least one main idea. The MAIN IDEA is what the text is mostly about. (It is backed up or supported by SUPPORTING DETAILS) Before discussing how to find the main idea, we shall first look at TOPIC. Can you define a topic? A topic can be […]
Read More >>
Writing an Article: Structure and Essential Tips
What is an article? Structure of Article Writing : Title : Draw the attention of readers with an attractive title and indicate the main topic of the article Introduction : Attract the reader’s attention with a sentence that gives a general presentation of the topic. Main Body : Between these sentences, the body should do […]
Read More >>
Other topics
Comments: