Market structure is like a structure you build with blocks. It describes the different ways that businesses can compete. There are four main types of market structures: perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly.
Perfect competition describes a market where there are lots of small sellers and buyers. There are so many that no one seller can influence the price of a product.
Monopolistic competition is when there are many sellers and producers selling similar, but slightly different, products. For example, there are lots of different brands of toothpaste.
Oligopoly is when there are only a few sellers of the same product. Like there may be only 2 or 3 phone companies.
Monopoly is when there is only one seller in the market. They might be able to charge higher prices because they are the only ones providing the product.