Chapter 8:Basic Sentence Patterns

and Major Variations

Presented by:

Melissa Albrecht and Christine Marino

Resource:

DeCapua, A. (2008). Grammar for teachers: A guide to American English for native and non-native speakers. New York: Springer.

Parts of a SentencePart Example

noun phrases the black book

prepositional phrases on the dock

verb phrases have gone, is walking

adjective phrases big heavy

adverb phrases very happy

Please refer to page 268 in Grammar For Teachers for a brief review of noun phrases and verb phrases.

Activity 1 – Identifying Parts of a Sentence

Directions: In the following sentences, identify the noun phrase, verb phrase and prepositional phrase.

1.Scuffy sailed into a big city.

2.Felix jumped off the hose.

3.You’re stepping on my house.

4.She waved toward the pond.

Activity 1 – Identifying Parts of a Sentence

1.Scuffy sailed into a big city. noun phrase verb phrase prepositional phrase

2.Felix jumped off the hose. noun phrase verb phrase prepositional phrase

3.You’re stepping on my house. noun phrase verb phrase prepositional phrase

4.She waved toward the pond. noun phrase verb phrase prepositional phrase

Adjective and Adverb Phrases

Sample Sentence:

The smart boy very carefully picked up some scattered rocks by the river.

Sentence Part PhraseThe smart boy noun phrase

very carefully adverb phrase

picked up verb phrase

some scattered rocks object noun phrase

by the river. prepositional phrase

Questions• What is a question?

–A question is a sentence that asks for information.

• There are two basic types questions.–yes/no questions–wh- questions

Yes/No Questions• Questions that can be answered with

either a “yes” or a “no”.

• ESL/EFL learners find yes/no question

formation easier for some verb tenses

than for others.

– Examples:

• Are you happy?

– The subject (you) and the verb (be) are inverted. Be is the main verb.

• Have you seen the new movie with Tom Cruise?

– Subject-verb inversion: have is the first auxiliary

• Can you see me?

– Subject-verb inversion: can is a modal auxiliary

Yes/No Questions (cont.)• Do auxiliary insertion and the corresponding forms are more difficult

for ESL/EFL learners than inverting the first auxiliary and the subject.• In the English language, sentence structure is fixed.

– Examples:• Does she travel a lot?• Do they travel a lot?• Did he travel a lot last year?

– Explanation: Insertion of do auxiliary: Do must be inserted in the appropriate tense: the main verb remains in its base form (no inflection).

• Did you call home last night?

Wh- Questions• Questions that are formed

with a question word, such as who, what, where, when, why, or how.

• Explaining and understanding how wh- questions are formed can be difficult for ESL/EFL learners.

Wh- Questions• Question words follow our auxiliary rule if the question

word is asking for information about the subject of the verb.

• The auxiliary rules states that:

1. If there is an auxiliary in the verb phrase, the question word is then followed by subject-verb inversion. If there is more than one auxiliary, only the first auxiliary changes places with the subject.

2. If the main verb is be, it inverts with the subject.

3. If the main verb is in simple present or simple past tense, we must insert the do auxiliary and leave the main verb in its base form.

Who and What Questions• When who or what asks for the subject, there is no change in word

order.

– Example:

• Who wrote that book?

– Patricia Polacco wrote that book.

• What ran through the woods?

– A cat ran through the woods.

• When who or what asks for the object, the word order changes (because we already know the subject).

– Example:

• Who is Ryan calling?

– Ryan is calling Marty.

• What did Kate read?

– Kate read a newspaper.

How Questions• Often combine with adjectives and adverbs

to ask about descriptions and characteristics.

–Examples:

• How big is her new house?

• How often does the supervisor visit?

Who Versus Whom• The question word who has

two forms.– who

• used when asking for the subject

• Who called you?– Dana called me. (Dana is the

subject).

– whom• used when asking for the object• Whom did you see?

– I saw Leon.

(Leon is the object).

How Much Versus How Many

• How much refers to noncount nouns.– Example:

• How much is that doggie in the window?

• How many refers to count nouns.– Example:

• How many doggies do you see in the window?

Discovery Activity 4: Identifying Questions

1. Can you swim? y/n or wh-

subject-verb inversion or do auxiliary

2. Why don’t you fly over? y/n or wh-

subject-verb inversion or do auxiliary

Discovery Activity 4: Identifying Questions

1. Can you swim? y/n or wh-

subject-verb inversion or do auxiliary

2. Why don’t you fly over? y/n or wh-

subject-verb inversion or do auxiliary

Common ELL Mistakes• Confuse the use of what or who in the

subject position, and insert the do auxiliary inappropriately or leave it out altogether.

– Examples:• Who did came last night?• What car I have?• Where you have been?

Active Versus Passive• Active voice refers to sentences where the “doer” is the

subject and the “receiver” of the action is the object.– Example:

• Leonardo DaVinci painted the Mona Lisa.• Only transitive verbs (verbs followed

by an object) can be found in the

passive.– The subject of a sentence in passive voice is the

original object of the verb in active voice.– Example:

• The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo DaVinci.

The “By-Phrase”• The “by-phrase” is the doer or agent of the verb in the

original or active form of the passive sentence.

– Example:• Romeo and Juliet was written by Shakespeare.

– The sentence is written in passive.– The reader’s attention is focused on the play rather than

on the playwright.– The “by-phrase” is included because the name of the

playwright is significant information.– A “by-phrase” is not included when the agent or doer is not

important or anyone specific.

The Passive and Tense

• We can use the passive in every tense.

• The following chart illustrates the passive in a variety of tenses.

• The “by-phrase” is not used in these examples because the doer is not significant.

The Passive and Tense

•The “by-phrase” is omitted because “people” is very general, obvious, and inconsequential.•The passive is used when we want to highlight the receiver, or when the doer is not important or unknown.

Learner Difficulties• As we know, any verb phrase with more

than one part can cause difficulties for ELLs.

• In some tenses, verb phrases are quite lengthy and students may forget some of the necessary components.– Example:

• New computer games should have been designed.

verb phrase

Get• Passive can also be formed with the verb get.

• This is a more informal form than passives formed with be.

• Examples:– The land will get destroyed.– The land will be destroyed.

Substitution• Refers to words English speakers use to replace longer

utterances.• When it occurs, the entire sentence is shortened.

Do– Example:

Lois: Did you read the assigned pages?

Allie: Yes, I did.

(instead of saying: Yes, I did read the assigned pages.)– Example:

Lois: Have you read the assigned pages?

Allie: Yes, I have.– Example:

Bob: Is Jackie always late?

Amy: Yes, she is.

Substitution• Does not always occur in answers to

questions.

• Example:– Allie always reads her assignments. Lois

does, too.– Directions: Explain the substitution above.

SubstitutionAllie always read her assignments. Lois does, too.

ExplanationDoes substitutes for reads + her assignments and the word too is added to show the sameness of the action or the event described by the verb.

Inversion• Example:

• Kim should always read her assignments, and so should Frank.

• Kim should is inverted to should Frank.

Neither, Either• Neither is an example of another

inversion.– Sam isn’t coming and neither is

Lillian.• Either is semantically similar to neither,

but differs structurally.• For negative connotation, either must be

negated with not.• There is no word inversion with either,

the way there is with neither.– Craig isn’t listening and Paul isn’t

either.

Learner Difficulties• ELLs need a lot of practice with substitutions.• ELLs often forget to use the do auxiliary and will often

use the main verb.– Example:

Did you read the assigned pages?

Yes, I read.

• ELLs often forget to change the word order after the word neither.– Example:

Jason has never come on time.

Neither Albert has.

One• One is another form that can substitute for other elements in a sentence to

avoid repetition.

• This should not be confused with the number “one”.

• One substitutes for a count noun; ones substitutes for plural count nouns.

– Example:

• Maggie prefers teaching a small class, but I prefer teaching a large one.

• Maggie prefers teaching small classes, but I prefer teaching large ones.

• Can be used as the numeral “one”.

– Example:

• Do you have any books for me? I have one.

• Can be used as an indefinite pronoun.

– Example:

• One should be skeptical of such results.

Classroom ActivitiesSentence Strip Puzzle: Students arrange sentence parts into grammatically correct sentences. Grammatically correct sentences can also be dissected and separated into parts.

Classroom ActivitiesSentence Structure Wheel: Students spin the wheel to make sentence patterns consisting of a variety of word phrases utilizing different sentence components present in the wheel. Students can also construct the wheel and independently manipulate the wheel for a variety of activities.

Classroom ActivitiesQuestion Sort: Students will sort questions and identify them as either yes/no or wh- using a recording chart or “t-chart”.

Yes/No Question Wh- QuestionAre you going home? When is the party?