Back to: Basic Grammar
In this lesson we are going to look at one of the important components of a grammatical sentence.
The order of the words.
In Hanguel, as you know, the word order is: subject object verb.
For this lesson each word type has a colour to make it easier to see.
그는 아침 식사를 위해 달걀을 먹는다
He (for) breakfast eggs eats
Subject prep i-object d-object verb
This is a typical sentence structure in Hanguel. But you already know this.
The sentence structure in English is:
SUBJECT - VERB- OBJECT.
So the same sentence above is:
He (subject) eats(verb) eggs (direct object) for breakfast(indirect object/object of preposition).
We also call this kind of structure the subject & predicate because often it is more than just the SVO structure, and additional words are included.
Subject > Predicate
He eats eggs for breakfast.
For our lesson we are going to look at subject/verb/object structure, but the predicate will include other words besides the verb and object.
Examples:
He goes to work at 8am everyday.
She works in a school as a teacher.
They have 2 children.
The City of London is the capital of England.
As you see, there are some sentences which are more than S/V/O, so we can ignore them for now, and focus on the structure.
Subjects and objects can have more than 1 word. This often confuses students.
For example in the last sentence, the subject is 'The City of London' (we could just say 'London' but I am giving it its full name).
The object of the sentence is 'the capital of England' because we are saying something about 'London'
Questions
Questions in English use the same components (S/V/O) but we have to place them in a different order to make our questions.
Example:
Mary drives to work.
They live in an apartment.
The manager works long hours.
To make these into questions we have to 'add'.
1. - Add the verb 'to do'
2. - Place it at the begining, keeping the same order.
3. - The verb does not have -s or -es added.
Does Mary drive to work? (for a question the verb does not have -s/-es)
Do they live in an apartment?
Does the manager work long hours?
Because we are using a simple verb, we use the verb 'to do' and we do not have to 'reorder' the words.
Negative sentences.
Mary doesn't drive to work.
They don't live in an apartment.
The manager doesn't work long hours.
He we have to 'add' 'to do', and we have to 'reorder' by putting the verb 'to do' after the subject.
The verb 'TO BE'
When using the verb 'to be' instead of a simple verb (play, have, goes, etc...,) we use the verb TO BE as the change.
With the verb 'to be' we can only use: a noun, a pronoun, an adjective, an adverb or a verb +ing.
Examples:
Tony is a football player. (a football PLAYER = a noun)
Peter and Mary are married. (married = an adjective)
I am staying at a hotel. (a hotel = a noun)
Other examples include:
Steve is upstairs (upstairs = an adverb)
Holly is sleeping (sleeping = verb +-ing)
That is not him (him = obeject pronoun).
Questions
Is Tony a football player?
Are Peter and Mary married?
Am I staying at a hotel?
Negatives.
Tony isn't a football player.
Peter and Mary aren't married.
I am not staying at a hotel.
These examples should be enough for you to work out how the sentence structure of S/V/O works in a simple way.
By doing the exercises, reading, and speaking, you will become more familiar with the structure, which you will need to do because it is different from your structure.
For practice, identify the subject, verb and object for the following sentences. Change them into questions and also change them into negatives.
This is the end of the lesson. Practice is just as important as study. Practice until you are comfortable using creating all 3 structures, and recognizing S/V/O.
Thank you.