Sentence Patterns with Shurley English.jpg

Learning English grammar can be tough, but, as the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words. So, I am taking the high road on this series and making it visual—thereby sparing well over 980 words…and your sanity!

If you are up on your brain science, you know that our brains seek patterns to make sense of the world. In English, even our sentences fall into patterns. If you recognize the pattern of a sentence’s core parts, the grammar of the sentence (or its word arrangement) will make more sense. Look at this:

This sentence follows the SN V pattern. In Shurley English, we call this Pattern 1. We know who the sentence is about and what he is doing.

Now, watch as the pattern changes to Pattern 2.

Pattern 2 sentences have a SN V-t DO pattern (DO stands for direct object). You still have the subject noun and a verb, but the verb is transitive this time. Transitive verbs (V-t) transfer action to an object. In this case, Jackson has become the object that gets chased…by the chickens. (Run, Jackson, run!) Jackson is now the direct object that is getting chased by the chickens. Jackson receives the action of the verb, chase.

Next time, we’ll learn about Pattern 3. (Stay tuned!)