Basic Sentence Pattern 3

"Pattern 3: SVA [Subject + Verb + ADverbial

The girl is here.

Pattern 3 usually consists of a subject followed by a form of be and an adverb or other word or words that can occupy the same kind of syntactic position and perform an equivalent function to an adverb.

Sometimes the pattern involves an intransitive verb such as reside followed by an obligatory adverbial as in 'The president resides on this street.'

Important differences between Pattern 3 and Subpattern 2A:
1. The verb be in this pattern usually has the meaning of 'be located' or 'occur.'
2. Pattern 3 is not capable of taking the subpattern 2A expansion.
3. The third position is occupied by an adverbial rather than an adjectival. Words of this type are typically uninflected words and include here, there, up, down, in, out, inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs, on, off, now, then, tomorrow, yesterday, over, through, above, below, before, after.
Up, in, and out are partially and/or irregularly inflected with the forms upper, uppermost, inner, inmost, innermost, outer, outermost, utmost, outmost. For most words in the third position one can substitute there or then.
Examples: The pingpong table is downstairs. / The game was yesterday. / The balls are outdoors.

Often a prepositional phrase with a there or then meaning will occupy the third position.
Examples: The wolf is at the door. / The game will be at three o'clock.

Examples of Pattern 3:
1. The picnickers was outside.
2. They are on the lawn.
3. Our appointment is now.
4. The batter is tall. 2A
5. The batter is inside.

rb"