Go: A sentence short and sweet

‘Go’ is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. It is an imperative sentence that is basically used as a command or order. However, there is an ongoing debate whether ‘I am’ should be given the honor.

Basic grammar teaches us that a complete sentence should have a subject, a predicate, and an active verb. It should also convey complete meaning. In this sense, ‘Go’ has a predicate and an implied subject ‘you’ that has been omitted. Such an omission from a sentence is known as ellipsis. It is a common practice to omit ‘you’ in imperative sentences. The sentence ‘Go’ conveys complete meaning by itself. ‘I am’ has a subject and a predicate. It can be considered as the shortest non-elliptical sentence. It has also been argued that ‘I am’ sounds vaguely incomplete.