Grammar tips: basic sentence patterns

What is the sentence saying? What’s happening in the sentence? What idea or ideas is the writer trying to communicate? These are the critical questions that lead to comprehension.

There are only three basic sentence patterns
The key is to find the subject-verb relationship. Then we must find the word or group of words that completes the idea that starts with the subject-verb relationship. Some words or groups of words that complete the subject-verb relationship are answers to the question: (verb) who or what? These words or groups of words are called completers. When they occur after an action verb they are called objects, but when they occur after a linking verb, they are called subject complements because they either rename or describe the subject directly. Other words or groups of words can complete the idea started by the subject-verb relationship by asking and answering where, when, why, or how about the verb.