Patterns of Simple Sentence

A simple sentence is a complete unit of meaning which contains a subject

and a verb, if necessary, by other words which make up the meaning. Alexander
(1998: 4) also wrote Made in Germany is correct English but it is not a sentence
because it does not have a subject. In the short words, simple sentence has a single
independent clause which conveys one thought.
In addition to patterns, Alexander (1999) proposed several types of simple
patterns such as verbs with and without objects, with linking verbs, with direct
and indirect objects. In the same ways, Wishon and Burks (1980) noted five
sentences patterns: with intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, certain transitive verbs
(two objects and objective complements), and linking verbs. These patterns are
also followed by Yano (2012: 42-43) and Demirezen (2012: 137-140) who typed
sentence into five basic elements plus one. They are S+V, S+V+O, S+V+
Complement, S+V+IO+DO, and S+V+O+ Complement. Demirezen added the last
is simple sentence with extended phrasal elements. In short, the patterns of simple
sentence are displayed on figure 1.
Table 1. The patterns of simple sentence
Patterns Subject Verb Object/s Complement Adverb
Transitive Verbs The door opened
S-V My head aches All day
S-V-Adverb She went There
They are For
traveling pleasure
Transitive Verbs The box contains pencils
S-V-O Arsenal won the match
Certain Transitive Tim told his friend
Verbs something
S-V-O-O The has given Tim
university An honor
Certain transitive The class finds Alice a genius
verbs The club elected Pernell president
S-V-O-Complement The believes prisoner innocent
(N/Adjective) lawyer
His work keeps him busy
Linking Verbs Frank is clever
S-LV-Complement Frank is an architect
(N/Adjective/Adverb) This book is mine
The is Here
meeting
Alice is like her
father

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1. Sentence Patterns with intransitive verbs
Wishon and Burks revealed that subject (Noun), verb, or predicate in this
and other sentences patterns can be compounded. Then, adverbs usually follow
the verb and are of basic types: manner, time, place, reason, and purpose. This
sentence does not require an object.
S-V : the phone rang
S-V-Adverbs: the concert began at 7.30 (time)
The day passes peacefully (manner)
The boat sailed away (place)
2. Sentence patterns with transitive verbs
Some verbs have an object which is commonly noun or pronoun. The
object is the person/thing affected by the action described in the verb.
S-V-O : You need some money (noun)
My mother calls me (pronoun)
The jury accepted his story (noun)
Ruth composes music (noun)
3. Sentence patterns with certain transitive verbs: two objects
Some verbs do not have complete thought without asking to whom? to
what? Verbs need two objects: direct and indirect. These might be confusing to
many students. Demirezen (2012: 138) noted that direct object answers the
questions “who” or “what” placed after the verb; names the action of the
predicate is directed. In contrast, indirect one refers to a noun or its equivalent
used as the modifier of a verb or verbal to name the person or thing for whose
benefit an action is performed.
S-V-O-O : He gave me a gift
We bought Mrs. Johnson a present
Too some verbs in this pattern may change to to/for phrase, as follow:
He showed his friends the letter
 He showed it to his friends.
The scholarship committee sent him the news
 The scholarship committee sent the news to him.
4. Sentence patterns with certain transitive verbs: objective complement
This pattern is considered as an important variation. Objective
complement refers to adjective or noun in the final position. Only certain verbs
can be used in this pattern included: consider, find, believe, think, prove, call,
name, elect, appoint, nominate, make, suppose, and choose.
I consider myself lucky.
The climate made the people easygoing.
His mother thought Tim a genius.
His action proved Raoul a great actor.
5. Sentence patterns with Linking verbs
Demirezen (2012) stated the complement here completes the meaning of
the subject. Besides, Alexander (1998: 5) explained the complement may be:
(1) an adjective, (2) a noun, (3) an adjective + noun, (4) a pronoun, (5) an
adverb of place or time, (6) a prepositional. The verbs typically use linking

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 verbs such as be (is, am, and are), become, seem, feel, look, grow, appear,
taste, sound, and smell.
In general, with amount of patterns in simple sentence, the student may not
name it simple at all. Unfortunately, the students are required to be master on
not only recognizing and identifying simple sentence but developing it as well.
It is to accomplish their skills in writing class.

Research Design
This study aims to know how well students in higher education master the
usage of patterns in simple sentence. The participants were 50 college-students in
second year of English education department academic year 2012/2013. Then, 25-
item test of sentence pattern was instrument to measure the students’ mastery of
the patterns in simple sentence. The test was divided into three kinds of writing
sub-skills: classifying sentence patterns, re-arrange the jumbled-words into a good
simple sentence, and developing sentences based on the patterns of simple
sentence given. Then, all participants were grouped based on the levels of
competences in mastery: extremely well (all items correctness or full score), very
well (score ≥ 80 points), somewhat well (score between 79 and 51), and not so
well (score ≤ 50). Moreover, their attitude and opinion were assessed by 8-item
closed-question of questionnaire by Likert-typed scale. Finally, the data were
analyzed by using descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis.

Research Findings
This research is trying to find how well college-students master in
identifying and making the patterns in simple sentences. By using test and
questionnaire, it was collected data of 50 participants. 25-item test of simple
sentence patterns was applied to measure how well the participants master them.
The result showed that mean scored 68.8 and the lowest and the highest scores of
the test were 44 and 92. Moreover, standard deviation scored 11.7 with modus,
60. The score distribution is displayed on the figure 2.