Basic Sentence Pattern 5

Pattern 5: SVOO (Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object]

The mother bought the girl a dress.

In pattern5 there are some important matters to be observed:

1. The verb of this pattern must be transitive.

2. We see two grammatical objects after the verb bought. These two objects are called, in order, the indirect and the direct object. If we omit the first one, the pattern becomes number 4 and dress is seen to be the direct object.

3. The indirect object may often be replaced by a prepositional phrase beginning with to or for, or occasionally with a different preposition.
Examples: a] He sold the student a ticket. b] He sold a ticket to the student. c] He built them a playpen. d] He built a playpen for them. e] He played me a game of chess. f] He played a game of chess with me. g] He asked her a question. h] He asked a question of her.

4. The verbs that can be used in pattern 5 are in a restricted group. Some of the common ones are give, make, find, tell, buy, write, send, ask, play, build, teach, assign, feed, offea throw, hand, pass, sell, pay.

5. A pattern 5 sentence may be transformed into the passive by making either the direct or the indirect object the subject ofthe passive verb: a] A dress was bought the girl by her mother. b] The girl was bought a dress by her mother.
In some cases, however, the passive transformation does not sound fully natural and seems to demand a preposition, as in a] The sergeant found the recruit a rifle. b] A rifle was found (for) the recruit by the sergeant.

6. The grammatical meaning of the indirect object is "beneficiary of the action of the verb-plus-direct-obj ect."

7. If the direct object is a pronoun, it must precede the other object, which is moved back within a prepositional phrase: a] The mother bought it for the girl. Not *The mother bought the girl it.
This movement occurs even if both objects in the sentence are pronouns: a]The mother bought it for her. Not *The mother boueht her it.

rb