UNIVERSIDAD DE LA FRONTERA

Facultad de Educ. Cs Soc. y Humanidades

Departamento de Lenguas, literatura y Comunicación
Pedagogía en Inglés
MAR / 2020

HANDOUT N°6: Simple sentences and sentence patterns

Simple sentences

A simple sentence is a single clause with a subject and a verb.

- Mary sneezed.
- Somebody coughed.
- The train didn´t come.
- People were waiting.

Simple sentences can also have an object and/or an adverbial, such as an adverb or a
prepositional phrase.
Objects: Mr Owen made lunch.
I brought some cakes.
We drank tea.
Everyone enjoyed it.
Adverbials as adverbs: Suddenly the weather changed.
We quickly closed the windows.
It often rains there.
Adverbials as prepositional phrases: Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in 1582.
He moved to London in 1588.

Simple sentences with linking verbs, such as be or look, have complements that describe
the subject.

- Cathy is a nurse.
-She wasn’t ready.
Her hair looked wet.
The room felt like an oven.

Sentence word order

In English, the order of words is essential to the meaning of a sentence. We have to

distinguish between the “subject-group” and the “verb-group” (predicate). The subject is
what (the thing) or who (the person) we are talking about, and the predicate is what is said
about the subject.
The order of the subject and predicate in the sentence is fundamental in the meaning of
the sentence. For example,

1. The boy kicked the ball. -----> The boy kicked the ball.
subject predicate

2. The ball kicked the boy. -----> The ball kicked the boy.
subject predicate

These examples show that a change in word order brings with it a fundamental change in
meaning.

Sentence structure or constituents

SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

She played the guitar
Mary loves him
My older brother will buy a new black racing car
We visited Rose

A subject is normally a noun, pronoun or noun phrase; it usually goes before the
verb. The verb must agree with the subject: subject-verb agreement.

An object is normally a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase; it usually goes after the
verb in the active voice. It can become the subject of the verb in the passive voice.

Exercises
Give more examples using the structure SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT
a.

b.

c.

A sentence does not always require an object. Look at the example below and provide some
extra examples of your own.

1. SUBJECT VERB
John and I cried

a.

b.

c.

2. SUBJECT VERB COMPLEMENT

He is a good student

a.

b.

c.

When we form sentences, there is a syntactic structure we have to follow. This

structure refers to word order in a sentence. The meaning of a sentence depends to a great
extent on the order in which words occur in a sentence. For example,

1. John hired Mary. -----> John hired Mary

subject verb object

2. Mary hired John. -----> Mary hired John

subject verb object

Syntactic rules determine the order of words in a sentence, and how the words are
grouped. For example,

The boy found the puppet

 This sentence may be grouped into: the boy and found the puppet, corresponding to
the subject and the predicate of the sentence. Then, we get a further division made up of
phrases such as: the boy, found, and the puppet. Finally, in the lower level of the sentence
structure division, we get individual words such as: the, boy, found, the, puppet.

The boy found the puppet

Exercise
a. Can you alter the order of the phrases in the sentence? What happens with the meaning of
the sentence? Give some examples.

b. By using the same structure of the sentence “the boy found the puppet”, replace the
subject, the verb and the object of it. What happens with the grammaticality of the
sentence? What happens with the meaning of the sentence?

SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

The boy found the puppet

1. found the puppet

2. The boy the puppet

3. The boy found

c. Can the members or constituents of the sentence be substituted? If yes, 1) is the

grammaticality of the sentence affected? 2) Is the meaning affected?

d. Say whether the underlined expressions are phrases or not.

1. I do not know what to do.
2. My sister will tell me when to go.
3. He helps me a lot.
4. Your father is a scientist
5. I kissed Brian.

Simple sentence patterns

A. Subject + verb

B. Subject + verb + complement

C. Subject + verb + direct object

D. Subject + verb + indirect object + direct object

E. Subject + verb + object + complement

PRACTICE

A. Find the patterns of these sentences. Write the elements under the sentences in the
space provided. ( S + V+ O + C + A )

1. The boy jumped. 8. Somebody has broken this chair.

2. You are not doing anything. 9. She should be in the same place.

3. Paul’s not very clever. 10. My sister became a nurse.

4. They live in Miami. 11. We elected him president.

5. They called their new born son Peter. 12. The lion looked miserable in the cage.

6. He will never be angry. 13. My boyfriend gave me a beautiful present

7. My dog died. 14. The guests left early.

B. Put the words in brackets ( ) into the correct order to make a sentence. Then, state
the patterns of these sentences.
1. (me - she - at half past 4 - phoned)
________________________________________________________________
2. (three weeks ago - the job -- started - she)
________________________________________________________________
3. (from the airport - took - we - a taxi)
________________________________________________________________
4. (at my house - are going to stay - they)
________________________________________________________________
5. (he - a letter - brought)
________________________________________________________________
6. ( blue dress - has - a - she)
________________________________________________________________
 7. (my coat - where - you - put - did - ?)
________________________________________________________________
8. (nice - she - seems)
________________________________________________________________

A. Read the following sentences. Identify subject and predicate. Then, identify objects,
complements, adverbials.

1. Alex carefully searched the room.

2. My sister is now a student at a large university.

3. His daughter grew happier gradually.

4. It rained steadily all day.

5. She had given the boy a banana.

6. We make him the president.

7. Buy your girlfriend some flowers.

8. My mother enjoyed the concert.

9. My ear aches.

10. One of our aircraft is missing.

B. Put an object ( a pronoun or a noun) after these verbs only where possible.

1. The box contains ……………………………….................................................

2. The bus has arrived ………………………………............................................
3. The phone rang …………………………………................................................
4. You need ………………………….....................................................................
5. We sat down ……………………………….......................................................
6. Did you beat ……………………………………….........................................?
7. Who opened ………………………………………..........................................?
8. Don’t hit …………………………………….....................................................
9. The door opened ………………………………….............................................
10. I began ……………………………………….......................................................
11. Did you enjoy ………………………………......................................................?
12. Sally made …………………………………........................................................
C. Complete these sentences using a different complement for each sentence. Say whether
you have used a noun, an adjective, an adjective + noun, etc.

1. My neighbour is very ………………………………...................................................

2. My teacher is …………………………………..........................................................
3. This lemon tastes ………………………………….....................................................
4. The students are ……………………………………..................................................
5. I want to be ………………………………………....................................................
6. Your mother seems …………………………………................................................
7. Robert looks …………………………………………..............................................
8. The meeting is ……………………………………....................................................