Hey guys, back again with another grammar post! (Cue the applause). Anyway, today we will be learning about subject-verb-direct object sentences, or SVDO for short. Before we begin though, let's do some haiku review. I first introduced haiku review in the second vocab post, so if you are unsure as to what it is, make sure to read that first. Let's begin!
Haiku Review (Learning Grammar Basics)
Sentences ask a question
Are you satisfied?
Read the first haiku.
Then the second. Both of these
What is this sentence?
I like bananas a lot!
Do you know the type?
Alrighty, that was a good review. I just wanted to say that if you ever forgot what the previous post was, or just want to look back, you are more than welcome to. Usually I'll try to cover some important things with the Haikus, but some things I might leave out. Anyway, I am saying this because we are building on what we learned in the first post, and so on. Now Mrs. Berkeley, you probably won't need a refresher but you can go back if you want to. Anyway, that being said, let's get on with today's lesson.
As you might have guessed, an SVDO sentence has a subject, a verb, and a direct object. Subjects and verbs are pretty basic terms and are relatively easy to identify, but a direct object might be new to some of you. A direct object is the recipient of the action performed by the subject. The verb is the action, and the subject is performing/doing the action to the direct object. An example sentence would be:
The Car hit the tree.
In this sentence, the car is the subject, and is doing the action. Hit is the verb, and the tree is the direct object. Let's do some more practice. Here are some more sentences, and see if you can identify the subject, verb and direct object in them.
1. The student dropped the book.
2. The dog slobbered on the man.
3. The tree fell on the house.
Ok, so now we are going to do some harder sentences. In each sentence, there can be multiple verbs and direct objects, so be sure to keep track of what action is being performed to which thing.
- The student ate the sandwich while watching a movie.
- The man read the newspaper and fed his dog.
- The teacher graded the student’s math test, and gave him a B.
Ah, number 3 was tricky. In “the teacher graded the student’s math test”, the student is the indirect object, as the teacher is not grading the student, but the math test. Him would also be an indirect object, and the “B” would be the direct object. If this is confusing to you, don’t worry. You technically haven’t learned them yet, but I just wanted to throw some in there. Anyway, hopefully you got the first five practice sentences. So now you know what direct objects are and how to identify them in a sentence. And you also know what an SVDO sentence is. Here are a couple more sentences, just for ducks.
- I typed my english paper yesterday.
- Susan scored a goal for her soccer team.
- The dog flew over the fence in an effort to catch the squirrel.
And this concludes our second grammar post. Stayed tuned for the next one!
- Jack Goodenough