The Seven Simple Sentences of English

As I told you in my last blog, I stumbled across this fact by accident while looking for textbook for the course I was taking.  I had always done well in English.  You would expect that being in the 95% percentile in vocabulary should have helped.  Without really trying, I had absorbed unconsciously the lessons that my teachers had taught.  But I did not know the Seven Patterns of English Sentences.  Do you?

1.  N-V  I am here.  You go, girl.  Help!  Did he win? 
You can teach Grade 2 students to recognise statements and questions using my handy colour-code.  Then you can teach them to scan for the information that they need to answer comprehension exercises.  You need to do that in order to teach them how to write complete sentences.

2.  N-V-N  The dog bit the man.  The man bit the dog.  (The meaning is different, but the pattern is the same.)

Here you learn/teach about subjective case and objective case. Now you can talk about transitive and intransitive verbs:  look at .../ see the ...; go to .../ help me; listen to .../hear the ...
3.  N-V-N-N He threw me a surprise party. She read us a story.  Did he give you an apple?
Now you can teach about shortening sentences and the fact that we shorten sentences (and phrases) when the pattern is familiar.  Of course, often we leave out some words that would help us understand the grammar if we had them in. 

4.  N-V-N  He is a kind man.  She is a thoughtful teacher.  Foxes are canines.  A = lw

We are back to N-V-N, but the relationships between the words are different.  Here we have an expository sentences of the sort called a Definition. 

 5. N-V-Adj  He is kind.  She is thoughtful.  Foxes are dog-like.  A = 5

This is another expository sentences, called a Description.  In these two expository patterns, the key words in the predicate complement the subject. 

Here is an example of a missing word: unto.  Like is an adjective.  It is modified by an adverb prepositional phrase.   We never use unto anymore, but you can find it used in the Bible. 

6. N-V-N-N   He named his dog Tray.  They elected him chairman.   He designated her cook.

Now we are back to the narrative story-telling sentence.  This time the extra noun complements the object of the verb.  

7. N-V-N-Adj  He thought his dog better than all the rest.  They voted her most beautiful.

Here the adjective complements the object. 

   These last two patterns, 6 and 7, as with Pattern 3, come from leaving out function words.  If we put them back in, we return to the earlier more basic pattern Pattern 2. 

You can use my colour code with little children and with adults.  It doesn't matter if the student hasn't learned the technical teminology of grammar, but by the end a week of lessons, you will be able to tell that he understands the principles of the patterns when he picks up the right coloured pencils.  Of course there is a little bit more to the parsing lessons than just colouring sentences.

Let me know if you want to know more.