Subject, Verb, Object.

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.

colours for subject-verb-object

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.

  1. The dog exercises in the park.
  2. Steve and Susan play tennis every Sunday.
  3. You catch the train to go to Manchester.
  4. Brian and I have fast cars.
  5. People of all ages love swimming.
  6. The fastest way to lose weight is by jogging.
  7. Inside the old church, we played after school.
  8. Computers and tablets are in all homes.
  9. The internet makes communication easier.
  10. The boys had lunch on the beach.

  1. The dog exercises in the park.
  2. Steve and Susan play tennis every Sunday.
  3. You catch the train to go to Manchester.
  4. Brian and I have fast cars.
  5. People of all ages love swimming.
  6. The fastest way to lose weight is by jogging.
  7. Inside the old church, we played after school.
  8. Computers and tablets are in all homes.
  9. The internet makes communication easier.
  10. The boys had lunch on the beach.

Questions.

  1. Does the dog exercise in the park?
  2. Do Steve and Susan play tennis every Sunday?
  3. Do you catch the train to go to Manchester?
  4. Do Brian and I have fast cars?
  5. Do people of all ages love swimming?
  6. Is the fastest way to lose weight by jogging?
  7. Inside the old church, did you used to play after school?
  8. Are computers and tablets in all homes?
  9. Does the Internet make communication easier?
  10. Did the boys have lunch on the beach?

Negatives.

  1. The dog doesn't exercise in the park.
  2. Steve and Susan don't play tennis every Sunday.
  3. You don't catch the train to go to Manchester.
  4. Brian and I don't have fast cars.
  5. People of all ages don't love swimming.
  6. The fastest way to lose weight isn't by jogging.
  7. Inside the old church, we didn't play after school.
  8. Computers and tablets are not in all homes.
  9. The Internet doesn't make communication easier.
  10. The boys didn't have lunch on the beach.

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.