Clause

The basic unit of English grammar is clause. Clauses are made up of phrases. We
can join two or more than two clauses to make a sentence. All clauses in English
have at least two parts i.e. a noun phrase and a verb phrase.
Noun phrase (subject) Verb phrase
The children
All the people in the bus

laughed
were watching

But most clauses have more than two parts.

Noun phrase (subject) Verb phrase
The children
John
All of the girls
This soup
Mary and the family
She

laughed
wanted
are learning
tastes
were driving
put

a new bicycle
English
awful
to Madrid
the flowers

in a vase

The first noun phrase is the subject of a sentence.

Ali laughed.
Uzma is learning English.
She puts flowers in a vase.
English clauses always have a subject except for imperatives and soft imperatives.
Shut the door.
Please come for dinner tonight.
If we have no other subjects, we use there and it. We call these subject
dummy subjects.
Its a lovely day
There are twenty people in the meeting.

Verb Pattern

The structure of the clause depends on the verb. For example:

An intransitive verb has the structure: N(=noun) + V(=verb): (John) +
(smiled).
A transitive verb has the structure: N + V + N: (We) + (had been playing) +
(football)
A link verb has the structure: N + V + Adj : (She) + (looked) + (happy)
A phrasal verb has the structure: N + V + p + N (She) + (gave) +(back) +
(the money)
or
N + V + N + p (She) + (gave) + (the money) + (back)

Intransitive Verbs
Intransitive verbs have the pattern N + V (noun + verb). The clause is complete
without anything else:
Noun Phrase
(Subject)

Verb Phrase

John
Nothing
The baby

smiled
happened
was
sleeping

(John) (smiled).
(Nothing) (has happened).
(The baby) (was sleeping).

Transitive Verbs
Transitive Verbs have a noun phrase as object:
Noun phrase (Subject) Verb phrase
John
We
Some of the children

Noun phrase (Object)

wanted
a new bicycle.
had been playing football.
are learning
English.

This pattern is N + V + N (noun + verb + noun).

Link Verbs
Some verbs are followed by an adjective phrase. The adjective phrase is
called the complement:
Noun phrase

Verb

Adjective phrase

(Subject)

phrase

(complement)

I
Everyone
This soup
The milk

am feeling
looked
tastes
has gone

hungry
very happy
awful
sour

This pattern is N + V + Adj (noun + verb + adjective phrase).

These verbs are called link verbs.
Some link verbs (for example be; become; seem) can have a noun phrase as a
complement:
Noun phrase (Subject) Verb phrase Noun phrase (complement)
Our neighbour
He
She

was
became
seems

a strange man
a geologist
a nice girl

This pattern is N + V + N (noun + verb + noun).

Double Object Verbs

Some verbs, like give and bring can have two different patterns after them:

Noun Phrase
(Subject)

She
They

Verb
Phrase

gave
brought

Noun
Phrase
(Direct
object)

Prepositio
nal
phrase

some money
a lot of food

to the old
man
for the
animals

>>>>
Noun Phrase

Verb

Noun

<<<<
Noun

(Subject)

Phrase

Phrase
(Indirect
object)

She
They

gave
brought

the old man

the animals

Phrase
(Direct
object)
some
money
a lot of food

These verbs are called double object verbs. When we have two noun phrases after
the verb the first noun phrase is the indirect object and the second noun phrase is
the direct object.