SENTENCE
PATTERNS
Professor Stevens, English 21

 

 

Grammar describes how words work together to make sense.  Grammar plus words tell you a lot about the sentence even if you don't know the meaning of all the words.  Once words are put into units of comprehension, they are sentences, which are made up of a subject (noun) and a verb plus other necessary words to be made understood.  There are specific ways or "patterns" that a sentence can be formed in.  In this part of your writing lessen a sentence will be referred to as a "pattern."  The simplest of sentence patterns is composed of a subject and verb without a direct object or subject complement. It uses an intransitive verb, that is, a verb requiring no direct object:

SENTENCE PATTERNS or sentences require a certain about of words that includes a subject and verb. Below are the six basic ways you can write a sentence.  Although Virginia Tufte (1976) of USC came up with ten ways to write a basic sentence, I have altered her system to have only six ways to write a basic sentence, a much, much simpler way of attacking sentence structure and grammar.

 

Pattern

Example

Verb

Other

 

         N     V    (ADV)

 

 

Pattern 1
N  V  (ADV)

The class talks quietly.

*Intransitive verb
(a verb requiring no direct object (DO), yet still an inactive very)
  1. "ly" ending—quietly, quickly, slowly or Preposition without an object.
  2. Adverb: when, where, how—"quietly" modifies the verb.  It tells how the class talks.
  3. (ADV) = **Adverb is optional. not necessary to complete the sentence pattern, e.g. He ran.
  4. Identify a noun  using determiners/possessives (articles)

 

        N      LV    ADJ

 

 

Pattern 2
N  LV/BE ADJ
 

The story seems true.

Linking Verb
Intransitive verb (a non-action verb).  Another simple pattern uses the linking verb, any form of the to be verb without an action verb:

  1. BE-verb or Linking Verb
  2. The subject, "story" is described by the adjective, "true" (an ***adjective Noun Modification). 
  3. Linking verb is always followed by an adjective.  It is the only time an adjective comes after the noun it describes.
  4. They cannot reversed: True is story.

 

     N       LV    N

 

 

Pattern 3
N  LV/BE  N
 

Alexander is king.

Linking Verb
Intransitive verb (a non-action verb).  Another common sentence pattern uses a direct object:

  1. BE-verb or Linking Verb
  2. The subject-Alexander is the same as the "king" or N = N; they can be reversed: The king is Alexander.

 

        N    V      N

 

 

Pattern 4
N  V  N

The bird ate a worm.

Transitive verb
(a true action verb)
  1. Has a Direct Object (DO) that answers who/what and receives the action—"worm" receives the action through the "bird."
  2. Create a passive transformation by making the DO into the subject: The worm was eaten by the bird.
  3. Needs an action verb that will allow a person or object to do something to another object or person: He kissed the frog.

 

N        V       N        N

 

 

Pattern 5
N  V  N  N

Mary made John a cake.

 

 

Transitive verb (a true action verb)

 
  1. Has a Direct Object (DO) that answers who/what and receives the action—"cake" receives the action through "Mary."
  2. Has an Indirect Object (IDO) that indirectly receives action—in this case "John."  Mary did not make John; she made the cake.
  3. Create a passive transformation by making the DO into the subject:  A cake was made by Mary for John.
  4. Needs an action verb that will allow two nouns.  There are very few that can do this: handed, made, make, mail, mailed, send, sent, find, found, give, gave, show, showed, ask, asked, tell, told, sell, sold, offer, offered, promise, promised, chose, chosen, take, took select, selected, elect, elected, etc

 

N  BE (ADV)

 

 

Pattern 6
N  BE  (ADV)

He is   late.
 

Intransitive verb (a non-action verb)
 
  1. BE-verb
    "ly" ending—quickly, slowly or Preposition without an object or noun.
  2. Same as Pattern 1, however, the verb is a Be-verb.
  3. Adverb: when, where, how
  4. (ADV) = Adverb is optional.

 

*An intransitive verb shows no direct action although it may seem to.  For example, He runs--is an intransitive verb.  However, He hit the ball--is a transitive verb that shows direct action upon the ball.

**Adverbs. An adverb provides more information about a verb, adjective, or another adverb; that is, it "qualifies" the verb

***An adjective provides more detail about a noun; that is, it modifies a noun. Adjectives occur just before the nouns they modify, or after a linking verb:

 

 

Using you ability to identify the "verb" in a sentence

Sentence Pattern Practice 1
Identify each of the sentences below as a Pattern 1 or Pattern 2. 

Consider:

  1. Find your verb first; it will either be an action verb, helping verb, linking verb or BE verb.  Once you locate the very, figure out what the word is doing at the end of the sentence. 
  2. Please keep in mind that a linking verb can also be past tense, e.g., "The food tasted wonderful."  In this case the  Ling Verb "tasted" links food and wonderful together.
  3. Don't forget that a preposition becomes an adverb when it does not have a noun/object with it: "Down the street" is a prepositional phrase because down has a noun with it—street.
  4.  Cross out the non-pattern words, such as:

o    Determiners/articles—the, an, a, several, many, some, etc. that are not part of any sentence pattern.  For example: "The boy ran."  Cross out the determiner, "the," because it is not part sentence patterns.

o    Adjectives—before nouns like "blue paper;" blue is not part of a sentence pattern; therefore, you cross "blue" out.  However, if the adjective appears in a Pattern 2 sentence, do not cross the adjective out; it is part of the pattern, e.g., "The girl seems happy."  You do not cross "happy" out.

o    Intensifiers—very, somewhat, fairly, etc.  The girl is very tall.  "Very" intensifies (makes more) the size of the girl.  These words are not part of a sentence pattern.

o    Prepositional phrases—Cross them out; they are not part of a sentence pattern.  "He found a coin on the street."  In this sentence you cross out the determiner "a" and the prepositional phrase "on the street."

o    Possessives—his, her, their, my, etc.  these words show "ownership."  They are not part of a sentence pattern.

                 Prep Phrase   Det   Adj     N        V          Adv
Example:  In the morning  the large family went (suddenly).
After taking out the prepositional phrase "in the morning,"  a determiner "the" and the adjective before a noun "large," it only leaves the basic sentence of "family went;" the adverb is optional.  Hence, if you have three prepositional phrases and several adjectives before a noun, you still only have a two word sentence—"man ate breakfast:"  In the early morning during breakfast,  a big, strong man ate his breakfast under the tree for an  hour. 

 

Practice Sentences/Tests :
Go to Practice 1 and Practice 2 on the menu.  Identify each word in the area above each word.  For example: "I  want a job." is pattern #4.  Then identify each as a pattern 1-6.