The term nominal sentence can refer to two different phenomena:

• a sentence
  Sentence (linguistics)
  In the field of linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language, and often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it...
  
   with a predicate
  Predicate (grammar)
  There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...
  
   consisting of the copula to be plus a predicative
  Predicative (adjectival or nominal)
  In grammar, a predicative is an element of the predicate of a sentence that supplements the subject or object by means of the verb. A predicative may be nominal or adjectival . If the complement after a linking verb is a noun or a pronoun, it is called a predicate nominative...
  
  , like Bob is a postman.
• a sentence with a predicate lacking a finite verb
  Finite verb
  A finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand on their own as complete sentences....
  
  , like The more – the merrier. Usually, the missing verb is understood to be a form of to be, as seen in colloquial English: You from out of town? (see Zero copula
  Zero copula
  Zero copula is a linguistic phenomenon whereby the subject is joined to the predicate without overt marking of this relationship...
  
  ).

Examples of sentences lacking a finite verb

While nominal sentences are rare in English, they are far more common in certain other languages:

• Russian
  Russian language
  Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
  
  : Вот человек, потерявший надежду. "Here is a man who has lost hope", literally "Here a man who has lost hope"
• Arabic
  Arabic language
  Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
  
  : هذا الكاتبُ مشهورٌ (hāḏā 'l-kātibu mašhūrun) "This writer is famous", literally "This writer famous"
• Hebrew
  Hebrew language
  Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
  
  : המלך ערום (ha-melex 'erom) "The king [is] naked"

Nominal sentences were also common in the old Indo-European languages

Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...

:

• Ancient Greek
  Ancient Greek
  Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
  
  : ἐμοὶ δ'ἄχος (emoì d'áchos) "and to me [there is] pain"
• Latin
  Latin
  Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
  
  : ūna salūs victīs "one salvation [is/remains] for the conquered"
• Old Persian: manā pitā Vištāspa "my father [is] Vištāspa"
• Tocharian A: tsraṣiñ waste wrasaśśi "the strong [are] the protection of the creatures"

Nominal sentences are common in American newspaper headlines:

• "First Animal Cloned"

And in English play-by-play sports announcing:

• "The batter 0 for 6 against Matthews this year."

See also

• [[ʾIʿrab#Nominal Sentences (الجملة الإسمية al-jumlatu 'l-ʼismiyya)|Nominal sentences in the Arabic language]]
• Phrase
  Phrase
  In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words which form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause....