Sadlier Vocabulary Workshop Level A Unit 12 Answers

Sentence Patterns

One recent approach to understanding English sentences asks you to recognize the various patterns upon which English sentences are based. Fortunately for students of English grammar, you need to concern yourself with only nine basic patterns. These basic sentence patterns are combined in various ways to generate (or construct) longer sentences. But no matter how long a sentence is, it is still based on one pattern, or a combination of two or more basic patterns. It follows, then, that if you learn to recognize these patterns (you already know them; you use them in your speech), you will more easily and quickly grasp the basics of the English sentence. Here, in simplified form, are the nine basic patterns of the English sentence:

1. Noun + Verb to be + Adjective                                                
   The grass is green.
2. Noun + Verb to be + Adverb                                                    
   My bedroom was upstairs.                                                      
   The single-word adverb in this sentence pattern may be replaced by a prepositional phrase with a "there" or "then” meaning, as in this sentence:                                               
   Mother was in the garden.
3. Noun1 + Verb to be + Noun1                                                
   Some dogs are good hunters.
4. Noun + Intransitive Verb 
   The shadows deepened.
5. Noun1 + Transitive Verb + Noun2 
   The cat caught the mouse.
6. Noun1 + Transitive Verb + Noun2 + Noun3 
   My brother gave his wife some flowers. 
   or
   Noun1 + Transitive Verb + Noun2 + to + Noun3 
   My brother gave some flowers to his wife.
7. Noun, + Transitive Verb + Noun2 + X, wherein X equals any one of several possibilities: 
   ♦ Another noun or a pronoun 
   We elected Mabel president.
   ♦ An adjective 
   They considered Sam handsome.
   ♦ A pronoun 
   The FBI thought Jerry me.
   ♦ An adverb of place
   We imagined him downstairs.
   ♦ Verb, present participle 
   We found the child crying.
   ♦ Verb, past participle 
   The boys found their clothes pressed.
   ♦ Prepositional phrase 
   They considered him in their way.
   ♦ Infinitive phrase with to be 
   Everyone considered Ella to be a friend.  
   In the Pattern 7 sentence
   (Noun1 + Transitive Verb + Noun2 + X), the X may also represent a combination of sentence elements, such as a verb and a prepositional phrase.
   
8. Noun + Linking Verb + Adjective  
   The milk smells bad.
9. Noun + Linking Verb + Noun2 
   Marie remained president until the election.