Enlarging Sentence Patterns

 

  1. A sentence pattern includes a subject and a predicate.  One common way of enlarging sentence patterns is by joining two sentence patterns with conjunctions:  and, but, for, nor, or, yet, so.  This makes a compound sentence.

 

Sentence Pattern                    , and                Sentence Pattern

“                      “                      , but                 “                      “

“                      “                      , for                 “                      “

“                      “                      , nor                 “                      “

“                      “                      , or                   “                      “

“                      “                      , yet                 “                      “

“                      “                      , so                  “                      “

 

Mary is laughing, but John is crying.

Mary cried, for she was hurt.

Away flew the paper, and up jumped the dog.

I couldn’t tell Jesse how I felt about her, nor could I ignore my feelings any longer.

 

  1. Another way to enlarge sentence patterns is to combine sentences by using conjunctive adverbs: then, therefore, however, thus, moreover, nevertheless, in fact, consequently, likewise, still, also, otherwise, for example, furthermore, instead, and others that act like them.  The whole sentence is a compound sentence.

 

[Sentence pattern];  conjunctive adverb,  [sentence pattern].

 

Mary is laughing; however, John is crying.

John was hurt; therefore, Mary cried.

Mary gave Jack the answer; thus, he passed the test.

 

Note:  Unlike coordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs can be moved around in the second sentence patterns:

 

“Mary is laughing; John, however, is crying.”  OR

“Mary is laughing; John is crying, however.”

 

(While conjuncitve adverbs may come at the end of the sentence, they are usually found at the beginning or imbedded in the sentence).

 

 

  1. Another way to enlarge sentence patterns is to use a subordinating word before one sentence pattern.  Although several subordinates can be used with several different sentence patterns, a conventionally written sentence always has t least one sentence pattern without a subordinate word.  The subordinate words are if, because, when, where, while, since, after, before, until, and other words that act like them.  They usually make complex sentences.

 

[Subordinate word + sentence pattern],  [sentence pattern]

 

Since Jack was hurt, Mary was crying.  (note comma)

While Jack bunted the ball, the third baseman came up to make the play.

Although Mary gave Jack he answers, he failed the test.

 

[Sentence pattern]  [subordinate word + sentence pattern]

 

Mary was crying since Jack was hurt.  (notice there is no comma)

The third baseman came up to make the play while Jack bunted the ball.

Jack failed the test although Mary gave him the answers.

 

 

  1. Another small group of subordinating words (who, whose, whom, which, that), called relative pronouns, introduce subordinate clauses functioning as adjectives.

 

Noun:    [Subordinate word + sentence pattern]:    verb:

 Mary,              who is my cousin,                                 laughed.

The girl who is laughing                         is my cousin.

 

Sentence pattern:       Subordinate word:                  Sentence pattern:

I knew                          whom                                      you meant.

Jerry heard                   that                                          she was his cousin.

I met the girl                 who                                         is his cousin.