Zander - Unit 1/Lesson 4

English 3200

Unit 1/Lesson 4

Zander Sargeant

4th Sentence Pattern

Linking Verbs

• A linking verb links the subject of the sentence and another noun, pronoun, or adjective

• This serves / can sometimes be replaced by a "=" sign

• It can also be replaced by a form of "be" if you are not sure if it is a linking verb

Examples of Linking Verbs

• Forms of Be: Am, Is, Are, Was, Were, Been, Being, Be

• Others: Appear, Become, Feel, Grow

Why those examples were linking verbs

• For example, "Am" is a linking verb because it can be replaced by "="

• Use the sentence "I am happy"

• "Am" is not only linking the subject (I) and the predicate (happy), but it will also make sense if you replace "Am" for "=" and get "I = Happy".

• Remember, the "=" strategy does not always make sense in certain scenarios

Complement Necessity

• A sentence will not have a sense of completeness if a complement doesn't follow a linking verb

• For example, "I look" vs "I look tired". Which has a sense of completeness?

• Because "I look" does not have a complement following the linking verb "look" while "I look tired" has a complement, which is "tired"

Multiple Choice

In the sentence, "I smell the flowers"

The verb "smell" is a linking verb

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Select the linking verb that would fit best in this sentence:

"I will ______ a better person"

• Become

• Grow

• Have

• Had

Subject Complement

• Always follows a linking verb

• Is a noun, pronoun, or adjective

• Gives further meaning to the subject of the sentence or means the same thing as the subject

Examples

• Johnny is happy

• Subject: Johnny

• Subject Complement: Happy

Fourth Sentence Pattern

• The fourth sentence pattern consists of a subject, a linking verb, and a subject complement to find a sense of completeness

• For example, "The phone is big"

• Subject: Phone

• Linking Verb: Is

• Subject Complement: Big

Another example,

• "The sky had been blue"

• Subject: Sky

• Linking Verb(s): had been

• Subject Complement: Blue

Multiple Choice

The sentence:

"The boss fired a worker"

Is a sentence that follows the fourth sentence pattern

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

The sentence

"Jena had been running to catch the bus."

Follows the fourth sentence pattern

• True

• False

Open Ended

Write a sentence that follows the fourth sentence pattern