Level: elementary
Clause structure
All clauses in English have at least two parts, a noun phrase (subject) and a verb phrase:
| Noun phrase (subject) | Verb phrase |
|---|---|
| The children | laughed. |
| All the people in the bus | were watching. |
But most clauses have more than two parts:
| Noun phrase (subject) | Verb phrase | Object, complement or adverbial |
|---|---|---|
| John | wanted | a new bicycle. |
| All of the girls | are learning | English. |
| This soup | tastes | awful. |
| Mary and the family | were driving | to Madrid. |
| She | put | the flowers in a vase. |
The first noun phrase of a sentence is the subject. English clauses always have a subject:
His father has just retired. He was a teacher. (NOT
Was a teacher.)
I'm waiting for my wife. She is late. (NOTIs late.)
except for the imperative, which is used for orders, invitations and requests:
Stop!
Please come to dinner tomorrow.
Play it again, please.
If we have no other subject, we use there or it. We call this a dummy subject:
There were twenty people at the meeting.
There will be an eclipse of the moon tonight.
It's a lovely day.
It's nearly one o’clock.
- What's the subject?
Verb patterns
Different verbs have different patterns, so the structure of the clause depends on the verb.
Transitive and intransitive verbs
Most verbs in English are either transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb has the structure noun + verb + noun:
| Noun (subject) | Verb | Noun (object) |
|---|---|---|
| John | wanted | a new bicycle. |
Transitive verbs need an object. Common transitive verbs are:
| bring buy |
enjoy like |
make take |
want wear |
An intransitive verb has the structure noun + verb:
| Noun (subject) | Verb |
|---|---|
| John | smiled. |
Intransitive verbs do not have an object. Common intransitive verbs are:
| arrive cry |
die fall |
happen laugh |
smile work |
Some verbs can be either transitive or intransitive:
| She sang a wonderful aria. We were singing. |
Transitive: N + V + N Intransitive: N + V |
| We were playing football. We were just playing. |
Transitive: N + V + N Intransitive: N + V |
Common verbs like this are:
| draw follow |
help learn |
ride study |
watch write |
- Transitive or intransitive?
Other patterns
Some verbs are both transitive and intransitive, but the object when they are transitive is the same as the subject when they are intransitive:
| Peter closed the door. The door closed. |
Transitive: N + V + N Intransitive: N + V |
| I boiled some water. The water boiled. |
Transitive: N + V + N Intransitive: N + V |
These are called ergative verbs.
There are other kinds of verb patterns. For example:
- link verbs have the structure Noun + Verb + Adjective (She looks happy) or Noun + Verb + Noun (He became a teacher).
- some two-part verbs can have the structure Noun + Verb + Particle + Noun (She gave back the money) or Noun + Verb + Noun + Particle (She gave the money back).
- double object verbs have the structure: Noun + Verb + Noun + Noun (Peter sent his mother some flowers).
- verbs followed by the infinitive (We planned to take a holiday.)
- verbs followed by the -ing form (I love swimming.)
- verbs with that, wh- and if clauses (She said that …, He explained what …, He asked if … .) These are often reporting verbs.
- Verb patterns
Hello.
I am confused about something and would really appreciate your help.
As we know, the difference between compound and complex sentences is that one is made up of independent clauses while the other includes dependent and independent clauses.
So if we discuss the following examples:
1. Sally was tired but she decided to work anyway. - a compound sentence with two independent clauses: Sally was tired. / She decided to work.
2. Although Sally was tired, she decided to work anyway. - a complex sentence.
My question is, in N2, if we take out “although” don’t we get two independent clauses? So why is N1 considered compound and N2 complex? Is it only because “but” is called a coordinative conjunction and “although” is subordinative?
Hi tutoring,
Yes, right. "Although" in 2 makes the clause subordinate. Taking out "although" changes the sentence structure, and the sentence is no longer grammatical unless another conjunction is added. The relationship between clauses is specified by the conjunction.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hello, Sir!
I wanted to know if the sentence below is compound-complex sentence.
Elon Musk has told Twitter staff that remote working will end and difficult times lie ahead.
Does "and" connect 2 dependent clauses: 1 that remote working will end & 2 that difficult times lie ahead?
Thank you for your time.
Best Wishes!
Hello Sokhom,
I'm afraid this is not something we deal with at LearnEnglish. I'd suggest you have a look at a site like grammarly, where they cover this sort of grammar quite extensively.
Sorry!
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello!
Could I ask you about the preposition in the sentence "All the people IN the bus were watching." Is it correct to say "on the bus"? If so, is there any difference? Can I also say "in the ship", "in the train", "in the plane"?
Thank you so much for your important work and help (I tell all my friends how helpful British Council teachers and team are) and I'm grateful for the answering this post beforehand!!!
Hi howtosay_,
Typically, "on" is used for all of those forms of transport, but people do occasionally say "in". The meaning is the same.
We are very glad to hear your kind comments. Thank you! We hope you continue to enjoy using the site.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Thank you Sir, but,is this use of the verb considered to be correct in formal writing?
I read in a text book that verbs like "love"."hate", "like"...can be followed by ing form or to infinitive and verbs like "want", "need","ask"... are followed by to infinitive.Is this grammatically correct to use them like the previous comment?
Hi Sajatadib,
Yes, it is considered grammatically correct, although the Cambridge Dictionary adds that it is usually used in informal situations. You may be interested in this page for more explanation: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/want (see the Want meaning ‘need’ section).
Want and need can be followed by an -ing form verb (they both have the "need" meaning), but not "ask".
I hope that helps!
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hello Sir,
The verb after "want" and "need" should be to infinitive,right?
But I heard this sentence : I don't want you telling me what to do.
Could you help me understand the ing form after want?
Thank you.
Hi Sajatadib,
"Want" can be followed by an -ing verb too. Here are some more examples.
The meaning of "want" here is more like "need" or "it is necessary". The sentence that you mentioned means something like "I don't need you to tell me what to do" or "It's not necessary for you to tell me what to do". It's stronger than the regular meaning of "want".
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hello!
Could you please answer the following questions:
Is that grammatically correct to say "Twenty people were at the meeting". And can I say " I went with my friend to the cinema yesterday" or "With my friend I went to the cinema yesterday" or am I to use cleft sentences for emphasis because these ones aren't correct? I went to the cinema with my friend yesterday sounds correct to me (I hope it is), but I have doubts concerning the other two sentences.
Thank you very much for your precious contribution to our knowledge, and thank you beforehand for answering this post!!!
Hello howtosay_,
The first sentence ('Twenty people...') is fine and a perfectly natural phrasing.
The other sentences are possible but sound very clumsy. Although it is possible to move prepositional phrases such as 'with my friend' around it is rarely done and tends to produce constructions which are distracting rather than emphatic. You could use a cleft sentence construction (It was with my friend that...) if you really needed to, but I find it hard to think of a situation where you would want to put such heavy emphasis on this and could not do it through, for example, using your voice or a contrasting phrase (...with my friend, not my wife).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello, Peter!
Thank you, I'm very very grateful to you!!! Could I ask you to clarify if "I went to the cinema with my friend yesterday" (as an ordinary sentence without any emphasis) sounds clumsy too? And if so, how do you say it correctly?
Hello again howtosay_,
That sentence is fine. Generally speaking, prepositional phrases come at the end of the clause, so both 'yesterday' and 'with my friend' come at the end of this sentence. It doesn't matter in which order.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello, Peter!
Thank you very much for your answers!!! I've been trying to find this kind of information on my own for a long time, but I couldn't. So, I very appreciate your help!
Hello Kirk,
I'm having doubts about the deconstructed sentence below, in particular the object of the (main) verb. Could you check?
Best,
Paul
You can’t stop people doing what they want.
You = subject
Can’t = modal verb, finite verb
Stop = transitive verb, main verb, bare infinitive
Can’t stop = verb phrase
People doing what they want = noun phrase (or zero that-clause?), direct object
People = noun
Doing what they want = gerund phrase, complement of noun phrase
Doing = gerund, verbal, non-finite verb
What they want = wh-clause, noun clause, object of gerund phrase, gerund complement
They = subject (pronoun)
Want = (transitive) verb
Hello Dr Paul,
Please note that this level of syntactical analysis isn't something I'm that all that familiar with, but yes, that looks correct to me.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Dear Sir/Madam,
I have been deconstructing three sentences (see below). Could you tell me whether the names behind the separate parts are correct?
Kinds regards,
Paul
I believe that he is dangerous
I = subject = personal pronoun (subject form)
Believe = transitive verb, active verb, finite verb, reporting verb
That he is dangerous = that-clause = direct object
He = subject = personal pronoun (subject form)
Is = linking verb and finite verb
Dangerous = modifier = adjective = subject complement
He is believed to be dangerous
He = subject = personal pronoun (subject form)
Is = finite verb
Believed = non-finite verb, past participle, transitive verb, reporting verb
Is believed = passive verb
To be dangerous = infinitve phrase = noun phrase = direct object
To be = infinitve = verbal (= non-finite verb) and functions as a noun
Dangerous = modifier = adjective
They believe him to be dangerous
They = subject = personal pronoun (subject form)
Believe = finite verb, active verb, transitive verb, reporting verb
Him = indirect object = personal pronoun (object form)
To be dangerous = see above
To be = see above
Dangerous = see above
Hello Dr Paul,
Yes, I'd say that all looks good. Well done!
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Much appreciated, Kirk.
Unfortunately I used the wrong tense. I should have written 'I have deconstructed three sentences' (present perfect simple) in stead of 'I have been deconstructing three sentences' (present perfect continuous), because we don't use the latter if we're talking about how much or how many (in this case: three sentences).
Best,
Paul