Clause Pattern: Subject – Verb – Direct Object – Adverbial (SVO_d A )

This pattern consists of a subject A noun phrase (a person or a thing) or a nominal clause normally placed before a verb phrase and which acts as the performer of the verb. more..., a monotransitive verb A verb which takes only a direct object realised by a noun phrase. more..., a direct object A direct object is the "thing" which is directly affected by a transitive verb. It may be a noun, noun phrase, nominal clause, an ing-clause, a to-cause, or a pronoun. more... and an obligatory adverbial An adverb phrase used to provide circumstantial information about a clause, to indicate the writer’s stance, or to link units of discourse by indicating their relationship. more....

Usually the adverbial in these sentences is concerned with location and it cannot be removed (hence the obligatory) or moved elsewhere in the sentence - otherwise the sentence would be incomplete or not make sense.

• Imagine yousubject placetransitive verb a heavy bowling balldirect object in the centre of a trampoline obligatory adverbial – its mass bends the fabric, and it creates a dip. (Webb 2023)

• Twosubject returned to Canada and tooktransitive verb the virusdirect object there obligatory adverbial. (Roossinck 2020)

• This makes you sneeze, even without you having puttransitive verb somethingdirect object up your nose obligatory adverbial ! (Johnson 2022)

• The cells in the retinasubject then sendtransitive verb messagesdirect object through the optic nerve, back towards the visual cortex.obligatory adverbial (Temple 2020)

• We have only managed to puttransitive verb astronauts direct object on the Moonobligatory adverbial six times so far. (Whittaker 2021)

• Another helpful trait is that cockroachessubject laytransitive verb their eggsdirect object in little protective casesobligatory adverbial. (Lovett 2022)

• This is what happens when yousubject puttransitive verb waterdirect object into a kettle,obligatory adverbial turn on the heat, and watch the steam floating out of the spout. (Bosi 2021)

• They have to make sure to then keeptransitive verb some waterdirect object behind the dam for people to use obligatory adverbial and lettransitive verb enough waterdirect object through to preserve the river habitat below the damobligatory adverbial. (Tarroja 2022)

Test your understanding of this Subject – Verb – Direct Object – Adverbial (SVO_d A ) pattern Go to the (SVO_d A) exercise page.