Some of the Most Common Sentence Patterns

S-V

S-V-O

S-V-SC
Lizards are lazy. Dinosaurs grew large. They became extinct. A frog is on the rock.

Rocks explode. Lizards like rocks.

The Most Basic Pattern: SUBJECT + VERB

Rocks explode.

Rocks

explode.

The Most Basic Pattern: SUBJECT + VERB

This pattern uses an intransitive verb.

Intransitive verbs take no direct object.

The Most Basic Pattern: SUBJECT + VERB

Ghosts walk. Fish swim. Penguins waddle. Balloons pop. The elephant swaggered. The ice cream melted. The strawberry ice cream cone with the cherry on top of it melted.

The verb in a Pattern 1 sentence does not have to be the last word of the sentence.
Happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow.

bluebirds

fly

rainbow

Pattern 2: Subject + Verb + Object

Everybody loves Raymond.

Everybody

loves

Raymond.

A DIRECT OBJECT answers the question Who? or What? to the verb. DIRECT OBJECTS apply only to action verbs (not linking verbs).

Pattern 2: Subject + Verb + Object

We ate pepperoni pizza.

We

ate

pizza.

Transitive verbs are verbs that take direct objects. DIRECT OBJECTS apply only to action verbs (not linking verbs).

Pattern 3: Subject + Verb + Subject Complement

Elephants are mammals.

Elephants

are

mammals.

When the subject complement is a noun (or pronoun), it RENAMES the subject and the sentence is reversible. (Mammals are elephants.) We use the back-slash to indicate that the subject complement refers back to the subject.

Pattern 3: Subject + Verb + Subject Complement

Elephants are large.

Elephants are large.

When the subject complement is a noun (or pronoun), it RENAMES the subject and the sentence is reversible. (Mammals are elephants.) We use the back-slash to indicate that the subject complement refers back to the subject.

Pattern 3: Subject + Verb + Subject Complement

Elephants look pretty .

Elephants

look

pretty.

A few other verbs sometimes get treated like linking verbs: look, feel, sound, smell, taste, become, grow, appear

Pattern 4: Subject + Verb + adjectives

Elephants look pretty .

Lilies

look

pretty.

The adjective is a direct description of the subject.

Pattern 5: Subject + Verb + adverbs

Elephants look pretty .

Lilies

are grown

here.

The adverb modifies the verb are grown.

Revision of SVO
Parse the following sentence accurately. I like anime. I love cars. The women built a strong wall. The teacher held up an orange. The professor loves buns, sausages, bananas and coke.

SVOO
Stands for subject | verb | object | object The students gave the teacher a headache. Subject The students Verb Gave Object (1) the teacher Object (2) a headache. *why? Because both the teacher and the headache are separate objects and entities.

Wait theres more

Comparison of SVOO and SVOC (complement) SVOO - The students gave the teacher a headache. SVOC The Students made the teacher sad. In SVOC , sad is the C. Because the teacher is an object and sad complements the sentence.

Compared to SVOA
SVOC The Students made the teacher sad. SVOA The students teased the teacher consistently. In svoa , A is consistently because consistently is an adverb and because consistently complements the word teased.

Some revision.
The wedding made the bride very happy. The monkey kissed one of the PPISMP MT sem 2 tenderly. The donkey gave me a carrot. He ran away quickly. The hairy baboon smiled. He jumped over a wall. The queen made me a knight. The athlete hit a curve ball to the other athlete.