Common Patterns
Now that we know the parts of a sentence and what parts of speech can do those jobs, let's look at them in more detail to see the order in which they must be used. This order is important to communicate clearly in Standard English. Using the correct word order will also help you avoid errors that many new students of Standard English often make when writing.
Now that we know the parts of a sentence and what parts of speech can do those jobs, let's look at them in more detail to see the order in which they must be used. This order is important in Standard English to communicate clearly. Using the correct word order will also help you avoid errors that many new students of Standard English often make when writing.
Let's start by first reviewing the most basic patterns or structures required in Standard English. Next, we will look at how we can add more information to those basic patterns or combine them to create longer sentences.
SV and SVO Rules
The simplest level of English word order within a sentence is that subjects come first, followed by main verbs and then objects:
Another simple sentence pattern is Subject + (action) Verb + Adverb:
Donkeys eat slowly.
This last structure can only be used when the main verb of the sentence is an action verb. When the main verb of the sentence is a state or linking verb, we can create sentences that follow a different simple pattern:
Subject + (state) Verb + Adjective
Donkeys are slow.
Subject + (state) Verb + Noun
Donkeys are animals.
Some languages do not have to follow such strict rules. However, in English, changing the order of the words or skipping the subject would change the meaning of the sentence or make the message unclear. The video below reviews the five basic sentence patterns.
In affirmative sentences, the subject always comes before the main verb. This rule changes in interrogative sentences or questions. The basic word order we can follow when making a question is explained in the video below.
SVOMPT Rule
Now that we understand basic sentence patterns, we see that these sentences are also very short. We can add more information in a sentence, but we need to also follow a specific order. For this, we use the SVOMPT rule to organize other information we add after the subject. We know what SVO means, so let's see what MPT means, as each of these parts answers a question.
|
Subject |
Verb |
Object |
Manner |
Place |
Time |
|
WHO |
does |
WHAT |
HOW |
WHERE |
WHEN |
Reminder: Only subjects and verbs are required to form a sentence. Any of the other elements are optional. Let's see some examples.
|
Subject |
Verb |
Object |
Manner |
Place |
Time |
|
Robert |
runs. |
||||
|
Robert |
runs |
marathons. |
|||
|
Robert |
runs |
fast. |
|||
|
Robert |
runs |
in the park. |
|||
|
Robert |
runs |
on Saturdays. |
|||
|
Robert and Maria |
teach |
English |
online. |
Note: Adverbs of frequency (always, never, sometimes) do not follow this rule. They appear between the subject and the predicate or lexical verb.
-
Robert sometimes runs fast.
-
Robert and Maria always teach English online.
Importance of Word Order
Some languages do not include all the sentence parts that English includes. Take special care to include those English parts that you might not be used to including in your native language. The following table shows some of these words that are needed in English but not in other languages.
|
Sentence Parts |
Language Issues |
|
Articles |
Neither Chinese nor Arabic includes articles, such as a and an, so people with Chinese or Arabic as a first language have to take great care to learn to use articles correctly. |
|
Verbs |
Many languages have verb tense setups that vary from English, so most new English learners have to be very careful to include auxiliary verbs properly. For example, Arabic does not include the verb "to be", so native speakers of Arabic who learn English have to take special care to learn the usage of "to be". An Arabic speaker might say "The girl happy" instead of "The girl is happy". |
|
Subjects |
Spanish and Japanese do not include a subject in every sentence, but every English sentence requires a subject (except in commands where the subject you is understood: "Go get the box"). |
|
Expletives |
Inverted English sentences can cause problems for many new English speakers. For example, you could say "An apple is in the refrigerator". But in typical English, you would more likely say "There is an apple in the refrigerator". This version is an inverted sentence, and "there" is an expletive. Many new English learners might invert the sentence without adding the expletive and say "Is an apple in the refrigerator". |
|
Plurals |
Neither Chinese nor Thai includes plurals, but English does. So many new English learners have to take great care to differentiate between singular and plural forms and to use them at the appropriate times. |
|
Subject pronouns |
In Spanish, the subject pronoun is often not used, so Spanish speakers learning English will often omit the subject pronoun, saying "Am hungry" instead of "I am hungry". |
Now that we know basic sentence patterns, let's look at the different groups of words that help us make sentences.
Source:
Text adapted from Karen Palmer, https://roughwritersguide.pressbooks.com/back-matter/writing-for-non-native-speakers/#back-matter-365-section-2 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.
Basic patterns video from Project Idea, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY9-pOb9l8E
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
QUASM video from Espresso English, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN-H-CMp82o&t=7s This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License