Guide to English grammar

Give, send etc • 10

Subject The thief

Verb gave

Object the inspector

Object his coat.

Call, put etc •1

Subject They The thief Subject He

Verb called thought Verb put

Object the inspector himself Object the coat

Complement sir. rather unlucky. Adverbial over his arm.

All these seven clause patterns contain a subject and verb in that order. The elements that come after the verb depend on the type of verb: for example, whether it is transitive or not. Some verbs belong to more than one type. For example, think can come in these three patterns.
Intransitive (without an object): I'm thinking.
Transitive (with an object): Yes, I thought the same.
With object and complement: People will think me stupid.
A practical guide to English grammar 9
Extra adverbials • 12
We can always add an extra adverbial to a clause.
A man walked into a hotel.
One day a man walked casually into a hotel.


And and or • 13
We can join two phrases with and or or.
The inspector and the thief got out of the coach.


Phrases in apposition • 14
We can put one noun phrase after another.
Our neighbor Mr. Bradshaw is a policeman.


8 Intransitive and transitive verbs

1 An intransitive verb cannot take an object, although there can be a prepositional phrase after it.
The man was waiting at the side of the road.
Something unfortunate happened.
The man runs along the beach every morning.
Intransitive verbs usually express actions (people doing things) and events (things happening).
A verb can be intransitive in one meaning and transitive in another. For example, run is transitive when it means 'manage.
He runs his own business.

2 A transitive verb takes an object.

The man stole a coat.
Everyone enjoyed the conference.
The driver saw the hitch-hiker at the side of the road.
The man had no money.
Transitive verbs can express not only actions (stole) but also feelings (enjoyed), perception (saw) and possession (had). After some transitive verbs we can leave out the object when it would add little or nothing to the meaning.
The man opposite was reading (a book).
We're going to eat (a meal).
A woman was driving (the coach).
We can also leave out the object after these verbs.
Ask/answer (a question), draw/paint (a picture), enter/leave (a room/building), pass/fail (a test/exam), play/win/lose (a game), practise (a skill), sing (a song), speak (a few words), study (a subject).
The following verbs can also be without an object if the context is clear.
Begin, choose, decide, hear, help, know, notice, see, start.

NOTE
There must be an object after discuss and deny.

The committee discussed the problem. He denied the accusation.

3 Many verbs can be either transitive or intransitive.

Transitive The driver stopped the coach.