Sentence Elements

1. Definition
A sentence may alternatively be comprising five units called elements of a sentence
structure: Subject (S), Verb (V), Complement (C), Object (O), and Adverbial.

e.g. She/ cleans/ the blackboard/ everyday.

S V O A

I/ am/ a student.
S V C

1.1 Subject: Is the word or words that represent the person or thing that is doing the
action expressed by the verb (the doer).

1.2 Verb: What people and things do, and what happens to them.

1.3 Object: Of a verb is the word or phrase which completes the structure begun by
the verb. There are two types of objects:

Direct Object (OD): He/ is eating/ an apple.

S V OD
Indirect Object (OI): He/ gave/ the girl/ an apple.
S V OI OD

1.4 Complement: It provides additional information about either the subject or object
of the verb. There are two types of complements:

Subject Complement (CS): is related to the subject.

e.g. The girl/ is/ now/ a student/ at university.
S V A CS A

Object Complement (CO): is related to the direct object of the sentence.

e.g. They/ make/ him/ the chairman/ every year.
S V OD CO A

1.5 Adverbial: It is a simple adverb functioning on its own or a group of words of

which the main word is an adverb. There are adverbs of manner, place, time, etc.

He/ drives/ quickly.

Jane/ gets up/ early.
We/ play/ football/ every Friday afternoon.
2. Verb Patterns:
2.1 The Verb Pattern (SV):
It consists of subject + verb (transitive)
e.g. It/ is raining.
S V

2.2. The Verb Pattern (SVO):

It consists of subject + verb (transitive) + object (direct).
e.g. I/ broke/ the window
S V OD

2.3 The Verb Pattern (SVOC):

It consists of subject + verb (transitive) + object (direct) + complement (object).
e.g. They/ considered/ the car/ too expensive.
S V OD CO
This verb pattern can often be expanded by a ‘to be’ clause or paraphrased by ‘that
clause’.
They considered the car to be too expensive.
They considered that the car was too expensive.

2.4 The Verb Pattern (SVOO):

It consists of subject + verb (ditransitive) + object (indirect) + object (direct).
e.g. Jane/ gave/ John/ her phone.
S V OI OD

This construction can be replaced by:

a)a direct object + to + noun phrase (NP) with the following verbs:
give, bring, grant, hand, offer, owe, read, promise, promise, send, show, take, teach,
write, etc.
Jane/ gave/ her phone/ to/ John.
S V OD Prep NP

b)a direct object + for + noun phrase (NP) with the following verbs: buy, cook, find,
get, leave, make, order, peel, save spare, etc.
e.g. They/ prepared/ dinner/ for/ their guests.
S V OD Prep NP
N.B.
When both objects are pronouns, it is common to put the indirect object (OI) last.
e.g. I/ lend/ them/ to/ her.
S V OD Prep NP

N.B.
The verbs strike and ask have two objects and cannot be replaced by the preposition
construction ‘to’ or ‘for’.
He asked me a question (NOT He asked a question to me/for me).
The verbs explain, suggest and describe always take the preposition ‘to’ construction.
Can you suggest a good dentist to me? (NOT Can you suggest me a good dentist?).

2.5 The Verb Pattern SVC:

It consists of subject + verb + complement (subject complement). The verb of this
pattern is called a linking verb. There are two groups of linking verbs.

a)Current linking verbs/Verbs of appearance and sensation such as:

appear, lie, remain, seen, stay (young), smell (sweet), sound, taste, look, feel, etc.

e.g. You/ look/ nice.

S V CS
We/ felt/ annoyed/ at their behavior.
S V CS A

b)Resulting linking verbs/Verbs of becoming such as:

be, become, grow (tired), fall (sick), run (wild), turn (sour), get (tired).

e.g. They/ became/ good friends.

S V CS
They/ soon/ got/ tired.
S A V CS

N.B.
Some of the above linking verbs can also be ordinary verbs.
Compare the following examples:
The driver/ turned/ the corner/ too quickly.
S V OD A
The weather/ is turning/ warmer.
S V CS
 Exercises

Exercise n°1: In each sentence below, underline the subject and circle the verb constituent.
1-Since September, the airline industry has suffered its greatest ever slump in business.
2-Analysts predict several years of diminished business.
3-Several thousand airline workers lost their jobs.
4-The general public is still nervous about flying.
5-People prefer to travel by train.
6-In Europe, the tourism industry has been affected.
7-Tourist hotels report a 40% drop in booking in the last six months.
8-In Athens, eight hotels have closed their doors for the winter season.
9-The loss of consumer confidence will damage the euro.
10-Everyone expects a drop in spending power.

Exercise n°2: Underline the subject complement in each sentence below.

1-Outside, the company sign seems modest.
2-Inside, the atmosphere is one of rush and ferment.
3-The company is a genetic engineering firm.
4-It has become a leader of a brand-new industry.
5-The focus of the project is DNA recombination.
6-DNA recombination is the transfer of pieces of DNA from one type of organism to another.
7-The leaders of the company are research scientists.
8-They are also shareholders of the company.
9-All the shareholders seem happy with the progress of the company.
10-They do not feel afraid of competition.

Exercise n°3: Underline the adverbials in the sentences below. Some sentences may have
more than one adverbial.
1-Opossums frequently appear to be dead.
2-Sometimes they merely pretend to be dead.
3-In that way they avoid attacks by predators.
4-Often they are simply dead.
5-Few opossums remain alive far into the second year.
6-According to one biologist, two-year opossums show the symptoms of advanced old age.
7-Over many centuries, opossums died at early ages because of accidents and predators.
8-As a result, natural selection ends especially early in opossums’ lives.
9-Bad mutations accumulate in older opossums.
10-The natural-selection theory apparently explains their short lives.

Exercise n°4: Complete these sentences by adding an adverbial.

1-My parents live…
2-Unfortunately, nobody is…
3-Everybody behaved…
4-You can get…
5-The soldiers are keeping…
6-The fortress stands…
7-The food will last…
8-The motorway stretches…
9-The next lecture will be…
10-I haven’t been…

Exercise n°5: Underline the indirect objects in the sentences below.

1-Send me your details.
2-Paul’s parents promised him a bicycle for his twelfth birthday.
3-You can save yourself the bother.
4-I owe my parents several hundred pounds.
5-Show me your new laptop.
6-Noisy neighbours cause many people a lot of problems.
7-What can I offer you now?
8-The film made the studio a huge amount of money.
9-The scheme offers new investors very handsome dividends.
10-Who taught you how to do that?

Exercise n°6: In each of the following sentences, say whether the underlined phrase is an
object complement (CO) or an adverbial (A).
1-Jack has put his coat and hat in my bedroom.
2-The noise is driving me mad.
3-They keep their house too warm.
4-I can see you home.
5-She made me her assistant.
6-My friend wants her coffee black.
7-Make yourself comfortable.
8-I want you outside.
9-We found everybody here very helpful.
10-Show me to my seat.

Exercise n°7:Read the following sentences and say whether the verbs are linking or action
verbs.
1-The ice cream tasted delicious.
2-Albert felt sick.
3-The child felt the puppy’s fur.
4-The plan looked promising.
5-I looked at her plan.
6-The hot chocolate smelled wonderful.
7-You sound pleased with yourself.
8-Ann feels annoyed.
9-She always looks nice.
10-They look at the painting.

Exercise n°8: Identify each sentence element by writing the appropriate abbreviation in the
brackets after it.
1-Salt was the first food seasoning.
2-Many people consider the accidental spilling of salt bad luck.
3-The Romans gave their soldiers special allowances for salt.
4-They called the allowance salarium.
5-That is the original of our word ‘salary’.
6-Europeans were mining salt by 6500 BC.
7-The first salt mines were located in Austria.
8-Today these caves are tourist attractions.
9-Salt preserved meat and fishvgv.
10-Ancient peoples used salt in all their major sacrifices.

Exercise n°9: Use each verb below to make up a sentence containing both a direct object and
an indirect object.
1-pay 6-make
2-bring 7-cook
3-leave 8-spare
4-read 9-ask
5-find 10-charge

Exercise n°10: You know you have identified the OI (Indirect Object) if you can answer the
questions:
To whom? To what? For whom? For what?
Label each sentence as either SV, SVO, SVOIOd
1-I bought you a new dress.
2-Mom gave Susan some spaghetti.
3-The woman told me her plans.
4-Will you write me a letter?
5-We mailed our costumers an invitation.
6-Ms. Lorenzo read us a story.
7_Mr. Smith promised the students a surprise.
8-Ms. Swain told Mrs. Bird a joke.
9-Mrs. Gallo sent a card to Miss Bunyak.
10-He charged me $25.
11-Miss Bunyak showed the students a movie.
12-Mrs. Tanweer brought me an umbrella.
13Ms. Mitsko gave her son a hug.
14-Margaret showed Connie the letter.

Exercise n°11: Divide the following sentences into their constituent parts and label each part.
1-Full-scale computers have a large numbers of programmes.
2-We must change all the programme tomorrow.
3-Tomorrow will be a holiday here.
4-These bookshelves are becoming very popular in Sweden.
5-We have recently added an extra unit to them.
6-Will you give it a try?
7-On July 7th, DDT was sprayed from a helicopter.
8-We all read too many books too quickly.
9-The young man grew restless in his mother-in-law’s house.
10-They made him their son-in-law.
11-Hva you ever eaten chicken?
12-They had found him a charming young wife.

Exercise n°12: Indicate by Od, Oi, Cs, or Co the parts underlined in the following sentences.
1-Will someone get a doctor quickly?
2-George and Paul both became famous doctors.
3-Do you call yourself a doctor?
4-May I call you Jenny?
5-May I call you a taxi or something?
6-Call me anything you like.
7-It is so cold, I can’t get warm.
8-The driver turned the corner too quickly.
9-Can’t you give them something to keep them quiet?
10-The young man was slowly going mad.
11-His mother-in-law was driving him mad.
12-The weather is turning warmer.
13-The hot weather turned all the milk sour.
14-Show me your passport.