Basic Sentence Pattern 4

"Pattern 4: SVO [Subject + Verb + Direct Object]

The girl bought a dress.

In pattern 4 the verb is transitive and is completed by a noun phrase, for which one can readily substitute him, her, it, or them. This noun phrase is called the direct object of the verb and has the grammatical meaning of 'undergoer of the action' or 'that affected by the verb.'

A direct object does not always experience any actual action. e.g. 'We heard the radio' in which 'the radio' is the direct object but does not experience any real action.

Normally the direct object is not the same person or thing as the subject. However, with two kinds of pronouns, the direct object does have the same referent as the subject.

One is the set of -self/-selves pronouns, generally known as the reflexive pronouns. These occur as direct object in sentences such as: e.g. i]She saw herself. iii]The lifeguards splashed themselves.

The other set consists of the reciprocal pronouns each other and one another, which function as direct objects in such sentences as: e.g. i]They found each other. ii] They fought one another.

Transitive/Intransitive verb:
Iv: She sang beautifully. Tv: She sang a beautiful folk song.
Iv only: The ship had vanished. Tv only: We enjoyed the party.

A transitive verb has two forms, which we call active and passive. The active form is the one that is followed by the direct object, which we have seen in pattern 4. From this active form we can make the passive form: e.g. Active: The chef cooked the meal. Passive: The meal was cooked [by the chef]

In this process there are four things to notice:
1. The object of the active form becomes the subject of the passive form. This is shown above
in the shift of meal.
2. The passive is made up of a form of the verb be plus a past participle, as was cooled.
3. The subject of the active verb may be made the object of the preposition by, or it may be suppressed.
4. In the passive, two grammatical meanings are shifted around. The performer of the action, chef, is now the object of the preposition, and the undergoer, meal, is the subject.

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