Susan Pozo

Cliffs A
Back to basics

 Parts of speech
Susan Pozo
Cliffs A
 Parts of a sentence- tree diagram

Sentence

Clause

Adverb Prepositional
Noun Phrase Verb Phrase
Phrase Phrase

Determiner Noun Auxilary Auxilary Main Verb Adverb Preposition Noun phrase

Determiner Noun

Some Student s will be Work ing late in their Room s

Susan Pozo
Cliffs A
 Basic sentence structure
Basic Sentence Structure
Subject Verb Complement Modifiers
Object
Manner Place Time

Performer of the Verbs name action Receives the how? where? when?
action (in Active or state of being action
voice)
I bought a hat yesterday
The children have gone home
We ate our meal in silence
The pilot completed his training at Embry Riddle last year
Aeronautical
University
The boy enjoys fishing
We sang so well yesterday.
Alberto drives carefully.
Michelle speaks spanish fluently.
The bird cleaned itself in the bird bath
Lisa is Reading a magazine
Susan Pozo
Cliffs A
 Sentence-

• Agent of sentence (focus)

• Performer of verb(active)
• Receiver of verb(Passive)
• Nouns, pronouns, noun phrases and verbs may
be used in this part.
• Noun Phrase.- group of words that ends in a
noun and does not begin with a preposition.
My new car / His beautiful house.
Subject • In case verbs are used, they must be in gerund
or infinitive form. Gerunds or infinitives are
nouns.
Susan Pozo
Cliffs A
 Subject Examples:
Subject
Complement Modifiers
Subject Verb
object
Manner Place Time
Coffee is delicious
The book is on the table
That new red car is Jhon’s
We girls are not going to the movies
George likes boats
Mary, John, George and went to a restaurant last night
I
The weather was very bad yesterday
The chemistry canceled class today
professor
The bank closed at two o’clock

 Every sentence must have a subject

o In case of commands the subject is [YOU] is understood
 Open the door.
 It can act as a pronoun for a noun OR can be the subject of an impersonal verb.
 As the subject of an impersonal verb, the pronoun is not actually used in place of a noun, but is part of an idiomatic expression
o It rains quite often here in the summer.
o It is hard to believe that he is dead
 In some sentences, the true subject does not appear in normal subject position. There can act as a pseudo-subject and is treated like a subject when
changing word order to a question. However the true subject appears after the verb and the number of the true subject controls the verb.
o There was a fire in that building last month. - Was there a fire in that building last month? Subject
o There were many students in the room - Were there many students in the room?
There

Verb
Susan Pozo
Cliffs A

• Can be either action or stative.

• Can be either transitive (takes a direct object) or intransitive
(doesn´t take an object)
• Has 5 forms:
• Base Form
• Simple Present
• Simple Past
• Present Participle
• Past Participle
• Verb phrases may be / are used. It is described as a main verb and

Verb any auxiliaries.

• Is waiting / Will have done. / could have been told
• Be = Aux + V
• Two commonly used auxiliaries have and be.
• Auxiliary be + Present Participle = Progressive Form
• Auxiliary be + Past Participle = Passive Voice
• Auxiliary have + Past Participle = Perfect Form.
Susan Pozo
Cliffs A
 Verb – Examples
VERB
Subject Verb Complement Modifiers
object
Manner Place Time
John drives too fast
They hate spinach
Jhon is going to Miami tomorrow
Jane has been reading that book
She will go to Boston next week
Jane is very tall
She must have gone to the bank
Joe has gone home
Mary is watching televisión
It was raining at six o’clock last
night
Susan Pozo
Cliffs A

• Completes the verb.

• Is also known as Object.
• Direct.- things
• Indirect.- People
• Answers one of two questions:
• What?
• Whom?
• I go to school every day. (No complement)

Complement • I bought a new house yesterday. (a new house =

complement)
• He saw my friends at the game. (my friends =
complement)
Susan Pozo
Cliffs A
 Complement

Complement
Subject Verb Complement Modifiers
Object
Manner Place Time
John bought a cake yesterday
Jill was driving a new car
He wants to drink some water
She saw John at the movies last night
They called Mary yesterday
He was smoking a cigarette
What did John buy?
 Similar to subject- It’s usually a noun or a noun phrase What was Jill driving?
What does he want to drink?
 It follows the verb when the sentence is in active voice. Whom did she see at the movies?
 EVERY SENTENCE DOES NOT REQUIRE A COMPLEMENT. Whom did she call yesterday?
 It cannot begin with a preposition What was he smoking?
Susan Pozo
Cliffs A

• Completes the sentence.

• Can be one of the following three:
• Time = When?
• Place = Where?
• Manner = How? (Adverbs)
• Prepositional phrases
• It is possible to use the different modifiers all in one sentence.
• MP + MT
• I went to the party.
• She did not play last night.

Modifier • I go to school every Monday.

• He sings well.
• He opened the door slowly.
• He slowly opened the door.
• Slowly, he opened the door.
• I work on Monday. (MT)
• On Monday, I work. (Prepositional Phrase)
Susan Pozo
Cliffs A
 Modifier
Complement
Subject Verb Complement Modifiers
Object How? Where? When?
Manner Place Time
John bought a book at the bookstore
Jill was swimming in the pool yesterday
He was driving very fast
The milk is in the refrigerator
She drove the car on main street
We ate dinner at seven o’clock

 The modifier normally follows complement, but not always. However, the modifier, especially when it is a prepositional phrase, usually cannot separate
the verb and the complement.

o
Jill is buying a new hat in the store
subject verb phrase complement modifier of place

Betty is shopping downtown

subject verb phrase modifier of place