Clause Pattern: Subject – Verb – Object – Complement (SVOC)

Understanding the construction and use of the subject – verb – object - complement clause pattern

This pattern consists of a subjectA 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., a monotransitive verbA verb which takes only a direct object realised by a noun phrase., a noun phraseA noun phrase consists of a head (a noun, an indefinite pronoun or a demonstrative pronoun and optionally a determiner, pre-modification and/or post-modification). and a complement clauseA complement is a word, phrase or clause which completes another element. Any element can take a complement.. (Mouse over the sentences to see information about the syntax.)

The complement clause may be a that-clauseA finite dependent clause consisting of the word 'that' and a finite clause., a wh-clauseA clause which begins with a wh-word (who, what, which, where, when, why, how, whether, whatever, whichever ) and acts either as a dependent interrogative clause or a nominal relative clause., an infinitive clauseInfinitive clauses are non-finite to-clauses. The infinitive verb is normally preceded by the marker 'to'., or an ing-clauseA participle clause (present participle) used as a noun phrase modifier, subject, direct object, adverbial, extraposed subject, subject predicative, and as part of an adjective phrase..

That clauses

• Animalssubject showtransitive verb usnoun phrase that there are many places to make a homethat clause. (Wishart 2020)
• In some states yousubject are asked to notifytransitive verb the public health unitnoun phrase that you’ve tested positivethat clause. (Doddridge 2022)
• Hoaxessubject similar to disinformation, are created to persuadetransitive verb peoplenoun phrase that things that are unsupported by facts are truethat clause. (Alsmadi and O’Brien 2021)
• Remindtransitive verb yourselfnoun phrase that you’re not the first person to procrastinate, and you won’t be the lastthat clause . (Sirois 2022)
• Nevertheless, wesubject cautiously remindtransitive verb ourselvesnoun phrase that hominin evolution unfolded over many millions of yearsthat clause. (Peppe, McNulty, and MacLatchy 2023)

Wh-clauses

• To be a good friend for our animals, we should give them the freedom to choose their own activities, and thatsubject will showtransitive verb usnoun phrase what they likewh-clause. (Starling 2021)
• So next time you hear someone declare they’re entitled to their opinion, asktransitive verb themnoun phrase why they think thatwh-clause. (Stokes 2012)
• Your eyessubject telltransitive verb the brainnoun phrase what it seeswh-clause and the brain fills in the missing information. (Berg 2019)

Infinitive clauses

• For instance, one studysubject askedtransitive verb participantsnoun phrase to do either one task or two tasks at the same timeto-clause. (Vasilev 2019)
• Urgetransitive verb your universitysubject to divest from fossil fuels, use renewable energy and commit to achieving net zero emissions – soonto-clause. (Mocatta and White 2020)
• With recent advances in AI made famous by ChatGPT, spammerssubject could havetransitive verb new toolsnoun phrase to evade filters, grab people’s attentionto-clause and convincetransitive verb usnoun phrase to click, buy or give up personal informationto-clause. (Licato 2023)
• The fundamental question is why are we allowing the people with the most privilege and powersubject to convincetransitive verb usnoun phrase to delay saving our planet from climate changeto-clause. (Maslin 2019)
• Isubject always advisetransitive verb politiciansnoun phrase to spend time with these innovators and to feed off their energyto-clause. (Mulgan 2022)

Ing-clauses

• Wesubject can seetransitive verb lifenoun phrase evolving all around using-clause. (Graves 2019)
• The next time yousubject seetransitive verb an antnoun phrase crawling up a walling-clause , look closely and you might witness some of these fascinating features at work. (Cassill 2022)
• Rather than an explosion, it was a very rapid expansion, the event thatsubject startedtransitive verb the universenoun phrase growing bigger and biggering-clause. (Lam-Cassettari 2019)
• Havetransitive verb yousubject ever heardtransitive verb someonenoun phrase talking to a baby with a funny voice that sounds almost like they are singinging-clause? (Quinn and Mehta 2020)

Test your understanding of this Subject – Verb – Object – Complement (SVOC) pattern.

⇦ ⇨