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Describing language
Describing language

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4.1 SVOCA

You’ve now learned about all the different components of English sentences. We have specialist terminology to refer to who is performing the action or process expressed in a sentence (subject), what action, etc. is taking place (verb), who that action or process is affecting (object), or what characteristic the subject possesses (complement). Of course, there’s two different types of object (direct and indirect) and we can always add more information to sentences using adverbials. It’s time to put your knowledge to the test.

Activity 6 Spotting grammatical components

Timing: This activity should take around 20 minutes

a. 

Subject


b. 

Object


c. 

Verb


d. 

Complement


e. 

Adverbial


The correct answer is b.

a. 

Subject


b. 

Object


c. 

Verb


d. 

Complement


e. 

Adverbial


The correct answer is a.

a. 

Object


b. 

Subject


c. 

Complement


d. 

Adverbial


e. 

Verb


The correct answer is e.

a. 

Object


b. 

Subject


c. 

Complement


d. 

Verb


e. 

Adverbial


The correct answer is c.

a. 

Object


b. 

Adverbial


c. 

Subject


d. 

Verb


e. 

Complement


The correct answer is b.

a. 

Object


b. 

Subject


c. 

Verb


d. 

Complement


e. 

Adverbial


The correct answer is a.

a. 

Object


b. 

Subject


c. 

Verb


d. 

Adverbial


e. 

Complement


The correct answer is d.

a. 

Object


b. 

Subject


c. 

Verb


d. 

Complement


e. 

Adverbial


The correct answer is c.

a. 

Object


b. 

Subject


c. 

Complement


d. 

Verb


e. 

Adverbial


The correct answer is c.

a. 

Object


b. 

Verb


c. 

Complement


d. 

Adverbial


e. 

Subject


The correct answer is e.

Discussion

The easiest starting point when identifying the components of a sentence is to find the verb. Because of what you know about word order in English, once you’ve found the verb, spotting the subject and the object (or complement) should be easy. Any information that is not a subject, verb, object, or complement, must be an adverbial.

If you want more practice spotting the different components of sentences, you might like to draw out each of the examples above using the tree diagrams that you came across earlier this week. The first one has been done for you.

A tree diagram showing the components of a sentence with two objects. The word ‘Sentence’ is at the top of the diagram with four lines branching out from beneath it. The first line goes to the subject (John), the second line goes to the verb (saw), the third goes to the object (the man in the orange stripy suit), and the fourth goes to an adverbial (in his rear-view mirror).
Figure 9 A sentence with an object and an adverbial.