Common Sentence Patterns

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  Basic Sentence Structure There are five basic patterns around which most English sentences are built.* They are as follows: S-V Subject-Verb John sleeps. Jill is eating. Jack will arrive next week. S-V-O Subject-Verb-Object I like rice. She loves her job. He's eating an orange. S-V-Adj Subject-Verb-Adjective He is funny. The workers are lazy. Karen seems angry. S-V-Adv Subject-Verb-Adverb Jim is here. Flowers are everywhere. No one was there. S-V-N Subject-Verb-Noun She is my mom. The men are doctors. At the heart of every English sentence is the Subject-Verb relationship. Other elements can be added to make a sentence more interesting, but they are not essential to its formation. The following sentences are examples of the S-V pattern. She sleeps. Core sentence She sleeps soundly. An adverb is added to describe how she sleeps. She sleeps on the sofa. A prepositional phrase is added to tell where she sleeps. She sleeps every afternoon. A time expression is added to tell when she sleeps. She is sleeping right now. Verb tense is changed, but S-V relationship remains the same. Mary will sleep later. Subject is named and another tense is used. The dogs are sleeping in the garage. New subject may require a different form of the verb. Note: Any action verb can be used with this sentence pattern. The following sentences are examples of the S-V-O pattern. They like rice. Core sentence The people like rice. Specific subject The friendly people like rice. Subject modified with an adjective The people in the restaurant like rice. Subject modified with an adjective The people like boiled rice. Object modified with an adjective The people like hot, white rice. Object modified with more than one adjective . The following sentences are examples of the S-V-Adj pattern. He is fine. Basic sentence with "be" verb He seems happy. Basic sentence with another linking verb Jordan is tall, dark and handsome. Series of adjectives Pulled from eslgold.com