Studying Sentence Patterns to Improve Your

Writing: Part One

Many English learners have spent a lot of time studying the parts of speech: adjectives, nouns
and verbs, for example. But sometimes studying the English sentence from a larger perspective
is useful.

One way to get a bigger view of English is to study common sentence patterns.

The English language has many patterns. In the book Rhetorical Grammar, author Martha Kolln
describes seven common sentence patterns. In other writings, she says that 95% of sentences in
English fit into basic patterns.

Understanding and mastering common patterns will not only help you do better on grammar
tests, but improve your writing skills, too.

For example, here is a passage written by Ernest Hemingway, a famous American author. It
comes from the short story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. The story is one of the most famous
ones that Hemingway wrote.

"This is a clean and pleasant caf. It is well lighted. The light is very

good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves.

Do you notice patterns in these sentences? If you do not recognize them, you will by the end of
this report! In this installment of Everyday Grammar, we are focusing on two of the most
common patterns in English.

Pattern #1: Subject + BE + Subject Complement

Consider a line from the song Beautiful, by Christina Aguiliera:

I am beautiful.

The line shows the foundation of most sentences in English:

Sentence = Subject (noun phrase) + predicate (verb phrase)

A phrase is a group of words that act as a unit. A noun phrase has an important noun, the
headword noun, along with words and phrases that give more information about it. The subject
of a sentence is the whole noun phrase a not just the noun!

The predicate is a verb phrase with a main verb and the words and phrases that give more
information about it.
If you take the sentence from the Aguilera song, you can analyze it like this:

Subject Predicate

I am beautiful

In this sentence, the adjective beautiful acts as the subject complement. It describes I, the
subject.

So, the song lyric is the first important sentence pattern in English.

Pattern #1

Subject + BE + Subject Complement

The subject complement can be either an adjective or a noun phrase.

For example, consider this line from the music group Queen.

We are the champions.

We are the champions.

In that line, the subject is we.

The predicate, are the champions, contains the BE verb along with a subject complement, the
champions. This noun phrase is describing the subject, we.

You might find sentences that appear more complicated but use the same basic structure.

Consider this song by the Beatles:

Baby, you're a rich man

Baby, you're a rich man
Baby, you're a rich man

At first, the sentence appears complicated, but the basic structure of the sentence remains the
same: Subject + BE + Subject complement.

The difference is that the sentence has added information, a noun that is the same as the subject
of the sentence.

Baby, you're a rich man.

Noun, SUB + BE + Subject Complement

Pattern #2: Subject + BE + Adverbial

The Subject + BE + Subject Complement pattern is not the only pattern you will find with the
verb BE.

Consider these two sentences:

1) My friends are at the concert.

2) The test was yesterday.

In these examples, the subject and the BE verb are followed by adverbials, which are, in this
case, words or phrases that tell where or when.

In the first sentence, the adverbial structure is the prepositional phrase at the concert.

In the second sentence, the adverbial structure is the adverb yesterday.

These examples show another common BE structure: Subject + BE + Adverbial.

What does this have to do with Hemingway?

Think back to the Hemingway passage from the beginning of this story.

"This is a clean and pleasant caf. It is well-lighted. The light is very

good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves.

The second sentence clearly uses a Pattern #1 sentence:

Subject BE Subject Complement

It is well-lighted

But if you look closely, you will see every sentence in the passage uses Pattern #1. Two of the
sentences use conjunctions, but they still depend on the same basic pattern.

"This is a clean and pleasant caf. It is well-lighted. The light is very

SUB.+ BE +SUB COMP SUB.+BE+SUB COMP SUB. + BE

good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves.

+SUB COMP.
Hemingway was famous for his short, declarative style. However, he did not write using basic
pattern 1 and 2 sentences only! Good writers know how to make their sentences come to life.
They do not write the same sentences over and over again!

What can you do?

To help you start recognizing these patterns, I am going to give you four more sentences written
by Ernest Hemingway.

Your homework is to identify which of the two basic patterns he is using. Please remember that
sometimes Hemingway uses additional words. Just focus on finding the basic structure a
pattern 1 or pattern 2. We will give you the answers next week in the comments section and on
our Facebook page.

Here are the sentences:

1. "He is a good lion, isn't he?"

- from The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

2. "He must be eighty years old."

- from A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

3. "He was only in a hurry.

- also from A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

4. "The treatment is for tomorrow."

- from Great News from the Mainland"

I'm Jonathan Evans.

I'm Jill Robbins.

And I'm John Russell.

John Russell wrote this story for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

To learn more about these patterns, read Martha Kolln's Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical
Choices, Rhetorical Effects.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

Words in This Story

adjective- n. a word that describes a noun or a pronoun

perspective - n. a way of thinking about and understanding something (such as a particular issue
or life in general)

phrase - n. a group of two or more words that express a single idea but do not usually form a
complete sentence

predicate - n. the part of a sentence that expresses what is said about the subject

analyze - v. to study (something) closely and carefully

complement - n. a word or group of words added to a sentence to make it complete

champion - n. someone or something (such as a team or an animal) that has won a contest or
competition especially in sports

additional - adj. more than is usual or expected