Basic Sentence Patterns

Pattern 1: SV (Subject + Verb)S first noun phrase positionV intransitivemodifier (optional) adverbs

- They fished early.- They were fishing in the river.- They were fishing when we passed them.- They finished late

but not:

- They finished the game.

Some intransitive verbs characteristically do not occur alone but take an adverbial modifier, e.g. lurk, sneak, lurch, sally, sidle, tamper, lie, and live.

He lives in Mexico. (reside) He lives on dairy products. (stay alive) He lived in the first half of the nineteenth century. (be

alive)

Some other verbs have passive sense based on transitive verbs taking an adverbial modifier.

My car rides comfortably. His book is selling well.

Pattern 2: SVC (Subject + Verb+ Subjective Complement) Subject + Verb+ Subjective Complement

- The explanation became elaborate. (V)- Our friend is a president of the university. (LV)

Sub patterns:2A NP (S) + Linking Verb + Adjective

- The food is delicious.- You look happy.- He is in a bad mood. (prepositional phrase)- His explanation is over my head. (prepositional phrase)

Linking verbs:

- to be: is, am, are, was, were, has been, have been, had been

- other verbs: seem, appear, become, grow, remain, taste, look, feel, smell, sound, get, continue, go

Linking verbs may be preceded by auxiliaries

Some other verbs which are not usually thought of as linking verbs may occasionally be followed by an adjective and therefore conform to subpattern 2A.

- The screw worked loose.- The defendant stood firm.- Her face went pale.- The well ran dry.- He proved true to his cause.

2B NP1 (S) + Linking Verb + NP1

- My friend is the president of the university.

- He remained a good boy.

first NP be identified/classified as

second NP that which identifies the subject

Linking verb: to be: is, am, are, was, were, has been, have been, had been

others verbs: remain, become, appear, seem, continue, stay, make

- Nico continued our friend, despite our differences.

- My sister became a pilot.

Pattern 3: SVA (Subject + Verb + Adverbial)

The girl is here.

S + be + Adverb, but sometimes S + V + A

He resides on this street.

Bunga lives in Singapore.

Pattern 3: The girl is here resembles a subpattern 2A Budi is ecstatic.

The differences between Pattern 3 and 2A:

The verb ‘be’ in pattern 3 usually has the meaning of “be located” or “occur”.

Pattern 3 is not capable of taking the subpattern 2A expansion:

- Pattern 2A

Budi is ecstatic. Budi is very ecstatic.

- Pattern 3

Ben was inside. X Ben was very inside.

The third position is occupied by an adverbial rather than an adjectival uninflected words including here, there, up, down, in, out, inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs, on, off, now, then, tomorrow, yesterday, over, through, above, below, before, and after. Up, in, and out are partially and/or irregularly inflected with the forms upper, uppermost, inner, inmost, innermost, outer, outermost, utmost, and outmost. For most words in the third position one can substitute there or then.

e.g. - The pingpong table is downstairs. - The game was yesterday. - The balls are outdoors.

Often a prepositional phrase with a there or then meaning will occupy the third position.

e.g. - The wolf is at the door.

- The game will be at three o’clock.

The grammatical meaning of the subject in pattern 3 is typically “that about which an assertion is made” and that of the adverbial is “modifier of the verb”.

Pattern 4: SVO (Subject + Verb + Direct Object)

The girl bought a dress.

the verb is transitive

is completed by a NP (can be substituted by him, her, it, or them)

the NP is grammatically called Direct Object (DO) meaning “undergoer of the action” or “that affected by the verb”. but DO does not always experience any actual action, e.g. We heard the radio

“the radio” (as the DO) does not experience any real action.

Normally DO is not the same person/thing as the subject, if the same referent reflexive pronouns (-self/-selves ) or reciprocal pronouns (i.e. each other and one another)e.g. - She saw herself.

- They found each other.- They fought one another.

Pattern 1 doesn’t take DO because it takes intransitive verb. - She sang beautifully.

- She sang a beautiful folk song.

- Intransitive only: The ship had vanished.

- Transitive only: We enjoyed the party.

Transitive verbs has 2 forms: active and passive.

The active form is followed DO.

From this active form we can make the passive form.

- The chef cooked the meal.

- The meal was cooked (by the chef)

- The chef cooked the meal.- The meal was cooked (by the chef)

In the process above, there are 4 things to notice:

The object of the active form becomes the subject of the passive form.

The passive is made up of a form of the verb be + past participle.

The subject of the active verb may be made the object of the preposition by or it may be suppressed.

In the passive, 2 grammatical meanings are shifted around. The performer of the action (chef), is now the object of preposition, and the undergoer, MEAL, is the subject.

Pattern 5: SVOO (Subject + Verb +IO + DO)

The mother bought the girl a dress.

There are some important matters to be observed:

1. the verb must be transitive.

2. there are 2 grammatical object after BOUGHT, i.e. (IO and DO)

3. the IO may be replaced by a prepositional phrase beginning with TO or FOR, or occasionally with a different preposition.

4. verbs used in pattern 5 are restricted. (common ones: give, make, find, tell, buy, write, send, ask, play, build, teach, assign, feed, offer,throw, hand, pass, sell, pay.)

5. pattern 5 sentence may be transformed into the passive form by making either the DO or the IO the subject of the passive verb:- A dress was bought the girl by her mother.- The girl was bought a dress by her mother.

not sound fully natural. so, need a preposition:

- The sergeant found the recruit a rifle. - A rifle was found (for) the recruit by the sergeant.

6. The grammatical meaning of the IO is “beneficiary of the action of the verb-plus DO”. if the IO is a pronoun, it must precede the other object, which is moved back within a prepositional phrase:

- The mother bought it for the girl.Not: The mother bought the girl it.

This movement occurs even if both objects in the sentence are pronouns:

- The mother bought it for her.Not: The mother bought her it.

Pattern 6: SVOC (Subject + Verb + DO + Objective Complement)

- We considered PSSI noteworthy.- The boss made her sister a manager.

Similar to pattern 2 but the complement describes/completes the DO.

The complement can be an adjective or a noun (or pronoun).

The main verb is transitive, a linking verb is implied between the object and complement.

- The voters elected him president.

- The voters elected him to be president.

- He considered her brilliant.

- He considered her to be brilliant.

- I thought the caller you.

- I thought the caller to be you.

- I thought the caller was you.

Pattern 6 is similar to pattern 5 2 NPs

- The mother bought the girl a dress.- The team chose Jim captain.

But they are different is 3 respects:1. In pattern 6, the first 2 NPs is the DO. In some

sentences, if we eliminate the second NP, we are left with pattern 4, containing only the DO after the verb.

- The team chose Jim captain.

The second NP is called the objective complement, because it completes the DO.

2. In pattern 6 both NP following the have the same referent; i.e. both Jim and captain refer to the same person.

3. In pattern 6, only the DO can be made the subject of the passive verb. We can transform the pattern sentence into:

- Jim was chosen captain.

But we cannot make the objective complement such a subject, since it makes no sense.

- Captain was chosen Jim.

In the passive of pattern 6 the subject comes from the DO of the active.

e.g. Active : He appointed Sri secretary.Passive : Sri was appointed (by him)

secretary.

Only a very small group of verbs can be used for pattern 6, such as name, choose, elect, appoint, designate, select, vote, make, declare, nominate, call, fancy, consider, imagine, think, believe, feel, keep, suppose, find, prove, label, and judge.

Pattern 7: SVOA (Subject + Verb + Object + Adverbial)

Mr. Smith set the cup on the table.

Adverbial element is obligatory in pattern 7.

Other Sentence Typessimilar to pattern 6 pattern 6 uses a

noun and adjective, but the other type uses present/past participle.

- I imagined her eating.

- I believed him seated.

Another pattern involves an expletive there or it.

there + be

- There is a sock under my bed.

There expletive – a meaningless slot filler occupying the normal position of the subject.

The subject itself comes after be. Sentences beginning with the expletive THERE are rearrangements of basic pattern sentences, and most of them conform to one of three types.

The first types follows the pattern of THERE + BE + S + Adverbial of place or time, e.g.

- There are two socks under my bed.

This type is rearranged form of pattern 3:

- A sock is under my bed.- Two socks are under my bed.

The second type is illustrated by this sentence:

- There was a police officer looking for you. A police officer looked for you/was looking for you.

This second type follows the pattern of THERE + BE + S + ing participle + Ø or remainder. It is usually derived from patterns 1, 4, or 5 employing an ing verb, e.g.

a. Pattern 1: A politician was speaking.There + be: There was a politician speaking.

b. Pattern 4: Some boys were eating apples.There + be: There were some boys eating apples.

c. Pattern 5: Several jockeys were giving their horses water.There + be: There were several jockeys giving their horses water.

The third type comes from the passives of patterns 4, 5, or 6, with pattern 6 being the most frequent, e.g.

a. Pattern 4: The police found a shotgun.

a. There was a police finding a shotgun.

Passive : A shotgun was found by the police.There + be: There was a shotgun found by the police.

b. Pattern 5: The company made him an offer.Passive: An offer was made (for) him by the company.There + be: There was an offer made (for)him by the company.

c. Pattern 6: They elected a Swede captain.Passive: A Swede was elected captain.There + be: There was a Swede elected captain.

The pattern of the preceding sentence is THERE + BE + S + ed participle + Ø or remainder.

In all the cases, the expletive THERE was followed by BE. Now and then a few other verbs appear in this structure, e.g.

- There remained only three doughnuts.- There stood a handsome lad in the doorway.

The expletive there should not be confused with the adverbial there. Though expletive there is merely a slot filler, the adverbial there refers to location (even if sometimes only metaphorically).

The expletive bears weak or third stress whereas the adverbial has secondary or primary stress.

- There (expletive) are soldiers in town.- There (adverbial) go the soldiers.- They are there (adverbial).- There (adverbial) they are.

Another expletive is it, which occurs as a “dummy” in the subject position before the verb.

It takes the place of the real subject, which follows later in the sentence, as in:

- It is nice that you could come.

If you apply here the subject-finding rule of thumb – Who or what is nice?

The answer will give you the subject” … that you could come.”

The subject is always a word group in this kind of sentence. The expletive it may also represent a following direct object, as in:

- I think it a shame that she lost the match/

Here “… that she lost the match” is the direct object.

The expletive it should not be confused with the impersonal it, which also occurs at the sentence beginning as a “dummy” subject.

This it is usually found in short sentences referring to weather, time, or space.

- It is raining.

- It seems cold.

- It is seven thirty.

- It is a long way to London.

There are also idiomatic uses of IT that are neither expletives nor impersonals.

- We hoofed it to the fair.

- You are going to get it when mom and dad get home.

- Beat it. (go away).

- I’ll have it out with you.

- How does it go?

- It looks bad for the White SOX.