Clause Pattern: Subject – Verb – Adverbial (SVA)

This pattern consists of a subject, a copular verb, and an obligatory adverbial.

• Sneezing is a phenomenon that occurs in both people and animals. (info)
  "that occurs in both people and animals" is a restrictive relative clause. The word "that" is a relativizer which connects the real subject to the verb "occurs" The real subject is "the phenomenon of sneezing".
  
  
• The answer to this question lies in how our brains are hardwired to think. (Anderson-Sieg 2021)      (info)
• The first one happened about 2 billion years ago and lasted about 300 million years. (Su 2022)     (info)
• Some [mushrooms] have pores that look like sponges. (Hughes 2021)    (info)

Common verbs used in this pattern are: be, get, happen, last, lie, look, occur, remain.

Test your understanding of this Subject – Verb – Adverbial (SVA) pattern Go to the (SVA) exercise page.