The English language has seven basic sentence (or clause) patterns. Examples are:
- John / laughed. (SV)*
- John / kissed / Jane. (SVO)
- John / is / tall. (SVC)
- John / gave / Jane / a present. (SVOO)
- John / made / Jane / angry. (SVOC)
- John / sat / up. (SVA)
- John / put / the bag / down. (SVOA)
Most simple and complex (but not compound) clauses are of one of these patterns no matter how long the clauses are. For example, the following two sentences are essentially of the same pattern.
- Jane / bought / fruit. (SVO)
- My long lost sister Jane / has been buying / a variety of fruit. (SVO)
* There are five sentence class terms: S = subject, V = verb, O = object, C = complement, and A = adverbial. The slash (/) denotes the boundary between syntactic terms.
Reference: Everyday Grammar by John Seely.
See also:
ghoti 
40 responses to “7 Basic Sentence Patterns”
Thanks for the interesting question!
It is best to keep clear whether you are thinking about a verb as a ‘word class’ (verb in contrast to noun, adverb, adjective, etc) or as a ‘sentence class’ (verb in contrast to subject, object, complement, etc). Here we are talking about sentence class. The question then is whether this sentence is considered a SVO (where the verb is ‘collaborated with’) or SVA (where the verb is ‘collaborated’, where the rest of the sentence completes the verb as a non-optional adverbial chunk).
There is no agreement on which it is. But I would lean with SVO because we generally ask “Who did he collaborate with?” rather than “How did he collaborate?” The verb “chunk” seems to be “to collaborate with”. The “How” question seems odd.
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I have read one of the question: He collaborated with a distinguished painter.
I am a bit confused about the idea of V in SVO. Does V only stand for a verb or it can also be a phrasal verb? Or should phrasal verbs be discussed separately?
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Object.
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In the sentence – I have got measles – what is measles? Object or complement? Thanks :)
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It cannot be SVC because by definition SVC means S=C. “He” does not equal “with a distinguished painter on the designs”. But neither can it be SV because, as you had said, it be an incomplete. “He collaborated” is not a sentence.
The sentence is SVO “He collaborated with a distinguished painter”, the verb being “collaborated with”.
“on the designs” is an optional modifier. Delete it and the sentence is still complete.
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could you help me with this one? : )
he collaborated with a distinguished painter on the designs.
I’m guessing it’s SV since collaborate is an intransitive verb? but what do you call the clause ‘with a distinguished painter on the designs.’ at the end? complement? I don’t think it’s a complement either since it’s not really complementing the subject? also cause i thought a SV sentence would be a complete sentence by itself and I think he collborated sounds like an incomplete sentence to me?
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No. 4 in the sentence pattern has an SVOO construction.
John / gave / Jane / a present.
Jane is the indirect object while the present is the direct object. The terms indirect refers to the relationship of an object and the verb of the sentence. What John gave was a present. He did not give Jane. Jane was the recipient of the present.
So, the object which is affected by the action (the verb) is the direct object. And the object which is passive to the action is the indirect object. This is clear when the same sentence is rephrased so that the indirect object is expressed as an obligatory adverbial as in
4a. John gave a present to Jane.
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Can u explain the detail about direct object and indirect object? Sorry if i have so many questions
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A regularly serviced car / makes / driving / safer. (SVOC). Hope you got full points for your homework.
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Can u help me with this sentence “a regularly serviced car makes driving safer”
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Consider (1) and (2).
(1) The average person eats forty-five tons of food.
(2) The average person eats forty-five tons of food during his lifetime.
Both are these are acceptable. If something is optional (as in “during his lifetime”) it is not counted as part of the basic pattern. So in my opinion SVO is fine.
One must differentiate optional and obligatory adverbs.
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I think this is S/V/O/A. [An average person (S)] [eats(V)] [forty-five tons of food(O)] [during his lifetime(A)] <- the last part describes when he eats not the food so technically its an adverb.
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No, you don’t. It is there to help you understand.
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do u have to put the pattern in a bracket?
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It could be A. It is an A if it is obligatory. Here it can be optional.
I will admit this is a case in which it can be either. So it depends on what comes before the sentence.
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i think it is ….. S/V/O/A . during his life time =/A/
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An average person / eats / about forty-five tons of food during his lifetime. S/V/O
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Can you help me with this sentence.
An average person eats about forty-five tons of food during his lifetime.
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Sir plzz ..can you give me something about form and meaning of language…
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SV.
The verb is “be cold-drawn”. It is a passive sentence.
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Can you help me with this sentence “Coiled bars shall be cold-drawn”? What pattern does it fall under and what is “cold-drawn” (adverb?) here?
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The subject is “racing downhill as fast as lightning”. Alternatively, it is “racing downhill”.
It is SVOC. Now please do you own homework next time.
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Racing downhill as fast as lightning gave him an incredible rush of adrenaline. Is it Svoc? What is the subject?
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Your site describes the 5 sentence patterns.
Here I have explained why five patterns is not enough.
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(1) He is sure to fail.
This is considered by some to be SVCA. But in the system described above this sentence is considered SVC where complement is “sure to fail”.
A syntactic part can be a single word or multiple words, as in
(2) He is there.
(3) He is at the station.
where the bold words in both sentences are adverbials. So in (1) we can consider “sure to fail” as one syntactic part.
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Can u say an example for S.V.C.A plc
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Haha. Good luck in learning it. It is the most useful system to remember.
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It’s really awesome.And able to understand very well.It’s helpful for my homework.
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http://easyenglishsubject.blogspot.com/2017/06/lesson-1-basic-sentence-pattern-easy.html?m=1
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Very easy approach. Teachers and students of English as a second language can use this.
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I am not knowing this english. I can learn for english grammar.
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It’s quite concise!
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Thanks for your advice, Warren.
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Yes.
This (subject)
makes (verb)
it (object)
sound as if she needs to return home without finishing the work at the project site. (complement)
The last component is long and complex but essentially it is just a complement. (It sounds as if she needs to return home without finishing the work at the project site.)
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This makes it sound as if she needs to return home without finishing the work at the project site. Is this sentence pattern S-V-O-C?
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You’re welcome. But you have to thank Mr Quirk and Mr Seely for these.
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You’re welcome.
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Thanks for dropping by.
An understanding of syntax is the first step to clear communication. That is what I tell my second language students. But of course this is good advice for native speakers as well.
Good luck in your future writing endeavours. Looking forward to seeing more.
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Thank you for visiting Oceantics, Warren, and for liking the “Ripped Pages” piece. I came here, curious about the 7 sentence patterns. I use SVO as the basis of all business communication in my book, The Corporate Storyteller. I call it Three Steps to Everywhere b/c of its capacity to build strong neural networks and external relationships. I’m including the link here, not as spam, only to affirm what you’ve presented here. It’s powerful stuff!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Corporate-Storyteller-Business-ebook/dp/B004HD6A8M
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Really cool and helpful for my homework
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