| Home |
 |
Sentence Grammar |
|
Meaning in an English sentence is conveyed not only by the words but also by the arrangement, or pattern, of the words.
There are five basic sentence patterns in English.
The simplest pattern is a subject followed by an intransitive verbA verb that is complete by itself and does not need to have a direct object.
, as in the following examples:
The customer complained.
subject = the customer
verb = complained
The customer complained loudly.
The flight from Tahiti departed on time.
The weary passengers will disembark in a few minutes.
The meaning of a sentence in this pattern is simply that the subject did something. A person, place, or thing acted in a certain way.
This pattern is most effective in showing a simple action. The emphasis is on the actor and the action, with no other elements to distract the reader.
 |
|
 |
|
|
Which of the following sentences is in the subject-verb pattern? |
| Yes. This sentence is in the simple subject-verb pattern. The subject, the cruise ship, is followed by the intransitive verb, has docked. |
| No. This sentence does not follow the simplest subject-verb sentence pattern. For one thing, it begins with an adverb phrase, because of the impending storm. In addition, the verb, has postponed, is transitive A transitive verb directs an action toward a direct object, either a noun or pronoun. and is followed by a direct object A noun or pronoun that receives the action of a transitive verb., our departure. |
|