Tag: stars twinkle

Basic Sentence Patterns

Basic Sentence Patterns

To learn a language (in our case English), it helps if we know the basic sentence patterns. And if we are able to make basic sentences, transformations become easy i.e. from affirmative to negative and interrogative; active to passive or simple to compound and complex (use of more than one finite verb).

A Basic Sentence is the smallest grammatical structure that can make sense. It is affirmative in form and has only one finite verb. Negative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences are simply not basic sentences. Similarly, sentences in passive voice are not basic. A basic sentence can be expanded into any imaginable length or changed into any other forms. It has a fixed word order i.e. noun phrase comes first and then verb phrase.

Pattern 1: Noun Phrase (NP) + Verb (intransitive)

  1. Birds fly.
  2. Dogs bark.
  3. Stars twinkle.
  4. Snow falls.
  5. The water level increased.

Pattern 2: NP + Verb (be-type & become-type) + NP

  1. Raj is a doctor.
  2. Sheila became a nurse.
  3. She turned an artist.
  4. He remained a clerk.
  5. Mr. Brown looks a gentleman.

Pattern 3: NP + Verb (be-type & become-type) +Adjective Phrase

  1. Rene is honest.
  2. He became mad.
  3. Minnie looked beautiful.
  4. John appeared handsome.
  5. The crowd turned nasty.

Pattern 4: NP + Verb (be-type) + Adverbial

  1. Bob is here.
  2. The monkey is on the tree.
  3. They are all upstairs.
  4. Nobody is there.
  5. The cat is under the table.

Pattern 5: NP +Verb (have-type) + NP

  1. My mother has a beautiful umbrella.
  2. Mr. Mehta has a car.
  3. The pen costs ten rupees.
  4. Students lack discipline.
  5. He has a fit body.

Pattern 6: NP + verb (transitive) + NP

  1. The horse kicked the cat.
  2. The hunter killed the lion.
  3. Children like chocolates.
  4. A barber cuts hair.
  5. I play chess.

Pattern 7: NP + Verb (transitive) + NP (Indirect Object) + NP (Direct Object)

  1. My friend wrote me a letter.
  2. They sent us a gift.
  3. He taught us English.
  4. My grandmother told me a story.
  5. We showed them our house.

Pattern 8: NP + Verb (transitive) + NP (Direct Object) + NP (Object Complement)

  1. The people elected her the Prime Minister.
  2. The manager appointed her secretary.
  3. They named their daughter ‘Sweetie’.
  4. The war made him a millionaire.
  5. Everybody considers him a gentleman.

Pattern 9: NP + Verb (transitive) + NP + Adjective Phrase

  1. She likes her tea hot.
  2. Exercise keeps our body fit.
  3. He opened the door wide.
  4. The Sun keeps us warm.
  5. They painted the house white.

Words

CHOOSE THE RIGHT WORD.

There are some universal saying that are always true look at the following sentences:

  1. The sun shines during the day.
  2. The moon shines at night.
  3. The stars twinkle at night.
  4. The sun rises in the east.
  5. The sun sets in the west.
  6. Fish live in water.
  7. Birds fly in the sky.
  8. Cows give us milk.
  9. Cows eat grass.
  10. The whale is the largest water animal.
  11. Peacocks dance in the rainy season.
  12. The sunflower always faces the sun.
  13. A crow is black.
  14. The sky is blue.
  15. A week has seven days.
  16. There are twelve months in the year.
  17. The earth is round.
  18. The earth revolves round the sun.
  19. The moon revolves round the earth.
  20. Two and two make four.
  21. There are but two sides of a coin.
  22. There are millions of stars in the sky.
  23. Plants gives us fresh air.
  24. Plants help to bring rain.
  25. We cannot live without air.

There are numerous such saying which are true. We cannot quote them all here. Here are some exercises where you have to choose/ pick the right word .

Exarcise 1 :- Choose the right words from the brackets and fill in the blank spaces . The first one has been done for you;-

  1. Fish line in water. (in water/on land)
  2. Birds ______ in the sky.(swim/ fly)
  3. We see with our ______ . (eyes/ears)
  4. We smell with our ______ . (ears/nose)
  5. We hear with our ______ . (ears/eyes)
  6. We taste with our ______ . (tongue/lips)
  7. We need ______ and _____ to line. (air and water/milk and bread)
  8. _______ are good for our health. (fruits/chocolates)
  9. Sugar is ______ . (sweet/sour)
  10. Butter and cheese are made of _______ . (milk/water)
  11. Bread is made of _______ . (floor/flour)
  12. Apples are _______ . (red/blue)
  13. A dog is a faithful ______ . (animal/bird)
  14. Lion is a ________ animal. (domestic/wild)
  15. Ships sail on _____ . (water/land)
  16. A rainbow has ________ colours. (seven/ten)
  17. We must eat _______ food. (fresh/stale)
  18. We should not play with _______ . (fire/toys)

Exarcise 2 :- Here are some sentences with almost similar sounding words. Fill in the blanks with the right word .

  1. Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a _____ of water. (pale/pail)
  2. Baa, Baa Black _______ . (ship/sheep) Have you any ______ . (wool/cool)
  3. My grandmother told me a _______ . (tail/tale)
  4. The monkey has a long ______. (tail/tale)
  5. The hen lays _______. (eggs/legs)
  6. Birds lay eggs in ______. (nests/vests)
  7. Ship _____ in water. (sail/rail)
  8. A lion lines in a _____. (den/pen)
  9. Goat’s baby is called a ______ . (kid/lid)
  10. _______ gives us wool. (Ship/Sheep)
  11. Mother cooks foods in a _______. (pen/pan)
  12. Birds have ______ (rings/wings)
  13. He plays in a _______ . (band/hand)
  14. We ______with our hands. (clap/tap)
  15. We ______ with our feet. (clap/tap)

Basic Sentence Patterns

Basic Sentence Patterns

To learn a language (in our case English), at the preliminary stage, it helps if we know the Basic Sentence Patterns. And if we are able to make Basic Sentences, transformation becomes easy i.e. from Affirmative (Positive) to Negative and Interrogative (Question), Active to Passive or Simple to Compound and Complex (use of more than one finite verbs).

Note – A Finite Verb has a tense and has a subject with which it agrees in number and person; e.g. sleep is finite in the sentence Babies sleep most of the time and looks is finite in the sentence The old man looks ill. But go in the sentence She wants to go is non-finite as it has no variation of tense and does not have a subject.

Most of the English Subject-and-Predicate sentences are built on the following principles. The Sentence has a framework consisting of Subject, Verb and Whatever Completer(s) – Direct Object, Indirect Object, and Complement. They come in a fixed word order. Let’s study them with the help of examples:

  1. Subject + Verb(S + V) – Cats mew.
  2. Subject + Verb + Complement(S + V + C) – Cats are animals.
  3. Subject +Verb + Direct Object(S + V + O) – Cathy likes cats.
  4. Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object(S + V +I +O) – Cathy gives them milk.
  5. Subject + Verb + Direct Object + Object Complement(S + V + O + O/C) – Milk makes them fat.

In the first sentence- Cats mew(S+V) – ‘mew’ is an intransitive verb i.e. it does not need/take a Direct Object to complete its meaning. Let us look at some more examples based on this pattern:

  1. Birds fly.
  2. The peacock danced.
  3. Stars twinkle.
  4. The sun shines.

The verbs used in these sentences are intransitive verbs as they do not take an object. But we can expand these sentences by adding an adverbial (Adv.) or prepositional phrase (PP) or a time element (TE).

  1. Birds fly in the sky. (PP)
  2. The peacock danced beautifully. (Adv.)
  3. Stars twinkle at night. (TE)
  4. The sun shines brightly. (Adv.)

Let us look at some more sentence patterns:

  • Subject + Verb (be- type and become- type) + Noun

Be-type verbs – am, is, are, was, were.

Some become- type verbs – look, remain, turn, and continue.

  1. I am a teacher.
  2. Thomas is a doctor.
  3. They are students.
  4. He was a gentleman.
  5. They were friends.
  6. Julia became an actress.
  • Subject + verb (be-type and become-type) + Adjective

Become-type verbs for this pattern – look, seem, appear, become, taste, turn, sound, smell.

  1. Sheena is honest.
  2. Models are pretty.
  3. William appeared handsome.
  4. The crowd turned nasty.
  • Subject + Verb (be-type) + Adverbial
  1. Ron is here.
  2. They are upstairs.
  3. Nobody is there.
  4. The students are in the class.
  • Subject + Verb (have-type) + Noun

Have-type Verbs – have, has, had, cost, resemble, etc.

  1. Mr. Gibson had a red car.
  2. She resembles her mother.
  3. They own a beautiful bungalow.
  4. Susan has a good sense of humour.
  • It + Verb (be-type) + Time/Atmosphere/ Weather/Distance etc.
  1. It is five O’clock.
  2. It is cold.
  3. It is raining.
  4. It is hundred Kms. from here.