The Five Basic Sentence Patterns

There are five basic sentence patterns that can be used to express your ideas. These patterns serve as guides to arrange your various word functions. In the study of the basic patterns, there is a need to distinguish a transitive verb from an intransitive verb.

A transitive verb is an action verb that has an object, while an intransitive verb is an action verb that has no object.
Examples: transitive verbs play, watch, write, eat, drink

Intransitive verbs swim, jump, walk, talk, smile

Before we start, take note of the following abbreviations: S subject IV intransitive verb LV linking verb C complement TV transitive verb DO direct object IO indirect object OC objective complement

1. S IV subject intransitive verb

Beth smiled (sweetly). S IV adv

Maurice left (early). S IV adv

2. S LV C Subject Linking Verb Complement

Jessica Zafra (is) my favorite writer. S LV C

The chocolate cake (tastes) bitter. S LV C Predicate adjective

3. S TV DO Subject Transitive Verb Direct Object

A super typhoon (hit) the country last week. S TV DO Jose called his girlfriend. S TV DO

4. S TV IO DO Subject Transitive Verb Indirect Object Direct Object

Mary (taught) us English. S TV IO DO Mr. Guidotti (left) his children a great fortune. S TV IO DO

5. S - TV - DO - OC Subject Transitive Verb Direct Object Objective Complement

They (called) Kobe The Black Mamba. S TV DO OC I (left) the door open. S TV DO OC

Exercise 1
Identify the pattern of each of the following sentences. 1. Hulk is my favorite action hero. 2. Divine watched The Hunger Games with her friends last week. 3. The news is true! 4. Everybody called him The Flash. 5. The teacher gave us a truckload of homework.

Exercise 2
Construct a sentence for each pattern. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. S TV DO S LV C S TV IO D0 S IV S TV DO OC

Exercise 3
Find 5 examples for each pattern from newspaper articles.