BASIC SENTENCE

PATTERN
English Syntax

Overview
In English, there are nine basic
sentence pattern.
Each position in each pattern is the
home slot of a particular grammatical
meaning.
In The girl bought a dress, The
first position, the girl, is the
performer of the action (Subject).
The second position is filled with the
grammatical meaning of predication.

s
n
r
e
t
t
a
p
e
Th

The patterns [1]

1. N be Aj

The third position must be adjective or

adjectival
e.g. My mother is very nice

2. N be Av
The verb be has the meaning of be located
or occur
The third position is occupied by adverbial.
For most words in the third position can be
substituted with there or then.
e.g. The girl is here

The Patterns [2]

3. N be N
The meaning of be is be identified or classified as
The first noun (subject) has the grammatical meaning
of that which is identified
The second noun means grammatically that which
identifies the subject (subject complement)
e.g. My brother is a doctor
4. N Lv Aj
The verb is called linking verb that links adjective
with the subject.
The verb can be substituted with seems, be, become,
or remain with no substantial change of meaning.
linking verb may be preceded by auxiliaries
e.g. The party may become lively
e.g. The cyclist appears weary

The patterns [3]

5. N Lv N
The second noun means that which
identifies the subject (subject complement)
e.g. My sister remained an outstanding
student
6. N VI
The verb is intransitive
It can be modified by words and group
words known as adverbs and adverbial.
e.g. The sportsman were fishing

The pattern [4]

7. N VT N
The verb is completed by a noun (or pronoun) which is
called direct object.
The verb has grammatical meaning of undergoer of
the action or that affected by the verb
The verb has two forms: active and passive
e.g. The girl bought a dress
8. N VT N N
The sentence may be transformed into passive by
making either the direct or indirect object and the
subject of the passive verb.
The grammatical meaning of the indirect object is
beneficiary of the action of the verb-plus-direct
object.
e.g. The mother bought the girl a dress
He sold them a ticket

The pattern [5]

9. N VT N (plus one): N/Aj/Pron/Av (of
place)/V (PP), Inv Ph with to be
In the order of object, the direct object
comes first. The second object is called
objective complement because it completes
the direct object.
The first object, the direct object, can
be made the subject of the passive verb.
e.g. The basketball team chose Charlotte a
captain
He considered her brilliant
I imagined her eating.

Function
Each position in the pattern sentences has a
dual role:
1. Each position is the habitat of a particular
part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, or
adverb)
e.g. The boy gobbled the hamburger
N
VT
N
2. The second role of each position is to
signal grammatical meaning of its occupant. It
is known as function (subject, verb or
predicator, subjective complement, direct
object, indirect object, objective
complement, object of preposition, modifier,
etc.