ENG • SHS 1Term 1WAEC / WASSCE SyllabusVIP Lesson
Sentence Elements and Phrases: SV, SVO, SVC, SVOO, SVOC
The five basic sentence patterns built from Subject, Verb, Object, Complement and Adverbial; recognising noun, verb, prepositional, adjectival and adverbial phrases, and using phrase substitution tests.
Share Lesson with Students:
Real-World Context & Relevance in Ghana
A community announcement at a Kumasi durbar square: "The chief (S) has declared (V) this Saturday a public holiday (O + C)." Everyone instantly understands because the sentence follows a pattern the listeners already know instinctively — pattern analysis simply makes that instinct visible.
Key Syllabus Learning Objectives
- 1Identify the five basic sentence patterns (SV, SVO, SVC, SVOO, SVOC) in extended text
- 2Distinguish direct from indirect objects and objects from complements
- 3Label subject, verb, object, complement and adverbial in any given sentence
- 4Identify the five main phrase types by their head word
- 5Apply substitution and movement tests to prove phrase boundaries in objective questions
1
The Five Elements Around the Verb
The verb dictates which elements must appear. Intransitive verbs stand alone (SV). Transitive verbs demand a direct object (SVO). Ditransitive verbs like give, send, offer, teach, buy allow two objects — indirect before direct: "Ama sent KOJO (IO) a LETTER (DO)" — or can switch with a preposition: "sent a letter TO Kojo." Linking verbs take complements that refer back to the subject (SVC) or object (SVOC): "We call him BABU" (him = babu). Adverbials are the only freely optional element.
- Test an OBJECT: it can become the subject of a passive ("Salt was bought by Ama").
- Test a COMPLEMENT after a linking verb: replace it with "it/they" referring to the SAME thing ("The mangoes are sweet → they are sweet" keeps identity).
- Test an ADVERBIAL: it can move to the front or be deleted ("Yesterday, we left. / We left.").
- Two objects order: person first, thing second (IO + DO) with no preposition.
Practical Example:
A mobile money notice: "You (S) sent (V) 200 cedis (DO) to Esi (AO/PP-adverbial)." The amount can be passived ("200 cedis were sent"), proving object status.
Core Takeaway:
Find the verb, ask what it requires: object (receiver), complement (completion), adverbial (optional circumstance).
2
Object versus Complement: The Identity Test
WAEC loves to underline a word at the end of a sentence and ask its function. If the final element RESTATES or DESCRIBES the subject, it is a subject complement: "Ama is the captain" (Ama = captain). If it is a DIFFERENT thing receiving the action, it is an object: "Ama bought a captain's armband." In SVOC the complement restates the OBJECT: "They elected Ama captain" (Ama = captain, but Ama is object — hence object complement). Note "They made Ama a captain" vs "They made a captain for Ama": only the first is SVOC.
- Linking verbs taking SVC: be, become, seem, look, smell, taste, sound, feel, appear, get (become sense).
- Verbs taking SVOC: elect, appoint, make, call, name, consider, find, think, keep ("The rain kept us inside").
- Identity check: insert "=" between the relevant nouns/adjectives — if true, it is a complement.
- "This made him happy": him = object, happy = object complement (him = happy).
Practical Example:
School speech day: "The principal declared the girls BESTES" — declared (linking-use verb), the girls (O), bestes (OC: the girls = bestes).
Core Takeaway:
Complement = re-describes; object = receives. Two roles can sit side by side in SVOC.
3
Phrases: Head Word Determines the Name
A phrase is a word group built around one head word and behaving as a single unit — it never contains its own finite verb. Name a phrase by its head: "the very tall headmaster from Ejisu" is a NOUN PHRASE because its head is the noun "headmaster"; "has been reading" is a VERB PHRASE; "with great care" is a PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE; "extremely proud" an ADJECTIVAL PHRASE; "very quietly indeed" an ADVERBIAL PHRASE. Whole phrases then plug into sentence patterns as a single slot: the noun phrase can fill S or O wherever a bare noun could.
- Noun Phrase (NP): (Det) + (Adj) + NOUN(head) + (post-modifiers: PP or relative clause reduced) — "three ripe pineapples from Ejisu".
- Verb Phrase (VP): all auxiliaries + main verb as ONE unit — "will have been marking".
- Prepositional Phrase (PP): preposition + NP — functions as adjective ("the girl IN BLUE smiled") or adverbial ("she ran TO CHAPE)".
- AdjP/AdvP: degree words + head adjective/adverb — "quite beautiful", "almost never".
- Substitution test: replace the whole group with a single pronoun/noun ("The tall boy from Ejisu" → "he"); if one word can replace it, it is one phrase.
Practical Example:
A textbook list: "the old wooden desk near the window" — one NP despite five words, head = "desk"; it answers "WHAT?" as a single unit.
Core Takeaway:
The head word names the phrase; the whole phrase fills one sentence slot.
4
Sentence, Phrase, Clause: The Three-Way Test
Before SHS 2 clause analysis, seal the three-way boundary. Phrase: no verb of its own ("after lunch"). Clause: has subject + verb ("after lunch finished") — but it may be unable to stand alone. Sentence: a complete thought ending in full stop/?/! — can be one word ("Stop!"). WAEC comprehension asks: "What is the grammatical name of the underlined expression?" Answer format: [type of clause/phrase] of the [pattern], and "What is its function?" — the SLOT it fills (subject, direct object, adverbial of time, etc.).
- One clause = one verb group. Count verb groups to count clauses.
- Non-finite verb groups (to-infinitives, -ing forms without auxiliaries) still belong to phrases: "To study hard is wise" — the whole infinitive phrase is the SUBJECT.
- "I know a man who can drive" — two clauses (know, can drive) plus the NP "a man who..."; the who-part is a clause inside a phrase.
- Function answers must quote a specific word: "It modifies the verb 'ran'" beats "It is an adverbial."
Practical Example:
A warning sign on the Accra-Cape Coast road: "Drive carefully, for accidents happen at dawn." — two clauses joined by "for", each with its own finite verb group.
Core Takeaway:
Finite verb = clause; verb-less unit = phrase; complete message = sentence.
WAEC / WASSCE Examiner Tips
- For "grammatical name and function" items, answer in two moves: NAME the unit (noun phrase / adverbial clause), then FUNCTION (object of verb X / modifies verb Y) — examiners award separate marks for each half.
- Delete-then-compare trick: if removing the underlined unit leaves a grammatically complete core, it is an adverbial; if the sentence collapses ("The principal declared the girls ___"), the unit is an object/complement.
- In error-correction objectives, check IO/DO order and preposition presence: "He gifted a pen to me" is fine, but "He gifted a pen me" is not — such patterns are deliberate distractors.
- When asked to identify the SIMPLE predicate, give the whole verb group (V + O/C/A that belong to the verb core); when asked the COMPLETE predicate, give everything after the subject.
- Practise with one sentence per day from your other subjects' textbooks — comprehension passages are mined from science and social texts, and the verb groups inside them are long (e.g., "has not been improved"); train on them.
Common Candidate Pitfalls & Errors to Avoid
- Labelling "Ama is clever" as SVO — clever is a complement (Ama = clever), not an object; objects never restate the subject.
- Calling a prepositional phrase an adverb just because it has adverbial meaning; the grammatical NAME is prepositional phrase, the FUNCTION is adverbial — give the examiner both, correctly separated.
- Splitting a verb phrase: marking "is" as the verb and "reading" as something else; the VP "is reading" is one V slot.
- Placing the indirect object after the direct: "gave the book the boy" is wrong; persons go first in the bare SVOO pattern.
- Counting a non-finite "-ing/to" verb as its own clause — "After finishing the exam" is a phrase; "After they finished the exam" is a clause.
Topic Mastery Checklist
- Can I label S, V, O, IO, DO, C and A in any five given sentences?
- Can I tell an object from a complement using the identity ("=") test?
- Can I name the five phrase types by their head word?
- Can I prove a word group is one phrase by substituting a single pronoun for it?
- Can I state the grammatical name AND function of an underlined expression in WAEC format?
Test Your Knowledge
Ready for the Topic Quiz?
5 WAEC-standard multiple choice questions with instant explanations.
Student Study Notes & Discussion
Share what you understood, ask questions, or drop helpful revision tips on Sentence Elements and Phrases: SV, SVO, SVC, SVOO, SVOC.
0 Notes
Loading community notes...