英文句子結構完整指南 | English Sentence Structure: 5 Essential Patterns

Most Taiwan learners memorize the 五大句型 (five basic sentence patterns) in high school and promptly forget them. That is a mistake. These five structures are not just exam material — they are the actual grammar framework native speakers use, unconsciously, thousands of times a day. Understanding them at a functional level is what separates learners who “know English” from learners who can actually build clear, natural sentences without translating from Chinese in their heads.

English sentence structure is a foundational skill that connects every grammar topic you study.

英文句子結構是什麼？(What Is English Sentence Structure?)

Every English sentence is built from three core components: a subject (主詞), a verb (動詞), and usually one or more elements that complete the meaning. Unlike Chinese, English rarely allows you to drop the subject — even “It is raining” requires the placeholder “it.” That single rule causes more errors for Taiwanese learners than any other grammar point.

Word order in English is also relatively fixed. The standard sequence is Subject → Verb → Object or Complement. Moving words out of this order usually creates an error, not stylistic variety. Once you internalize these patterns, your sentence-building becomes automatic rather than a translation exercise.

Understanding the building blocks of English sentences makes grammar rules far easier to remember.

英文5大基本句型 | The 5 Basic English Sentence Patterns

句型一：S + V（主詞 + 動詞）

The simplest English sentence is a subject plus an intransitive verb — a verb that expresses complete meaning without needing an object. “Birds fly.” “The baby cried.” “She arrived.” The verb carries the entire event on its own, with nothing transferring from the actor to a recipient.

These verbs are called intransitive because the action begins and ends with the subject. You cannot say “Birds fly something.” Common intransitive verbs include: sleep, arrive, exist, die, happen, appear, come, go, run, and wait. Many verbs can be both transitive and intransitive depending on context — “She runs” (intransitive) versus “She runs the department” (transitive).

• 그 sleeps deeply. （他睡得很沉。）
• The train departed on time. （火車準時離開了。）
• 실수 happen. （錯誤是會發生的。）

句型二：S + V + O（主詞 + 動詞 + 受詞）

The S+V+O pattern is the backbone of English writing and conversation.

This is the most common 英文句子結構. A transitive verb transfers the action from the subject to an object. “She drinks coffee.” “I love Taiwan.” “He reads the newspaper every morning.” The object answers the question “what?” or “whom?” after the verb.

Remove the object from a transitive verb and the sentence breaks. “She drinks” alone feels incomplete — drinks what? In formal writing, the object is essential to complete the meaning.

• I eat rice for breakfast. （我早餐吃白飯。）
• The teacher explained the lesson clearly. （老師清楚地說明了課程。）
• 그들 built a new office downtown. （他們在市區蓋了一棟新辦公室。）

句型三：S + V + C（主詞 + 連綴動詞 + 主詞補語）

This pattern uses a linking verb — be, seem, appear, feel, smell, taste, sound, become, look — to connect the subject to a word that describes or renames it. That describing word is the complement (補語). “She is a doctor.” “The food smells amazing.” “He became the team leader.”

The key distinction from S+V+O: the complement describes the subject, not something receiving an action. A quick test: try replacing the linking verb with an equals sign. If the sentence still makes logical sense (“She = a doctor”), you have S+V+C. Common linking verbs are grouped by type: be verbs (is, am, are, was, were), sense verbs (look, smell, taste, feel, sound), and change verbs (become, get, turn, grow).

• The answer seems correct. （這個答案看起來正確。）
• That coffee smells wonderful. （那杯咖啡聞起來很棒。）
• 그녀 became the department head after five years. （她五年後成為了部門主管。）

Writing out sentences in each pattern by hand is one of the fastest ways to make the structures automatic.

句型四：S + V + IO + DO（主詞 + 動詞 + 間接受詞 + 直接受詞）

Some verbs take two objects at once: an indirect object (the recipient, 間接受詞) and a direct object (the thing given or shown, 直接受詞). “He gave me a book.” Here, “me” is the indirect object — who receives — and “a book” is the direct object — what was given.

The verbs that appear in this pattern involve transfer or communication: give, send, tell, show, teach, offer, bring, lend, write, buy. You can always rewrite this pattern using “to” or “for”: “He gave a book 에게 me.” Both forms are correct; the two-object version is more common in speech, while the “to/for” version is more formal.

• 그녀 taught us grammar last semester. （她上學期教我們文法。）
• 그 sent his manager the report by Monday. （他在週一前把報告寄給主管。）
• Can you show me the way to the station? （你能告訴我去車站怎麼走嗎？）

句型五：S + V + O + C（主詞 + 動詞 + 受詞 + 受詞補語）

Clear notes on the five sentence patterns help Taiwan learners spot them quickly in real texts.

This pattern adds a complement that describes the object, not the subject. “We call him Boss.” “They painted the wall red.” “She kept the window open.” The complement tells us what the object has become or is considered to be.

The verbs here include: call, name, make, find, keep, consider, leave, elect, appoint, paint, turn. A quick test: you can insert “to be” between the object and the complement and the meaning holds. “We call him [to be] Boss.” If that works, you have S+V+O+C.

• The board elected her chairperson. （董事會選她為主席。）
• The cold weather made everyone miserable. （寒冷的天氣讓大家都很不舒服。）
• 그들 left the door unlocked all night. （他們讓門整晚保持未鎖狀態。）

簡單、複合與複雜句 | Simple, Compound & Complex Sentences

Combining the five patterns into compound and complex sentences is what real English fluency looks like.

The five patterns above describe single-clause sentences. Real writing combines clauses into longer structures. The three main sentence types work as follows.

Simple sentences (簡單句) contain one independent clause using one of the five patterns. “The meeting starts at 9.” Clean and direct — use them when a point needs emphasis or when you want to create a punchy contrast after a longer sentence.

Compound sentences (複合句) join two or more independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction — FANBOYS: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So. “The report was ready, but the client cancelled the meeting.” Two complete thoughts, equal weight, connected by contrast. Each clause could stand alone; the conjunction shows the relationship between them.

Complex sentences (複雜句) combine an independent clause with one or more dependent clauses using subordinating conjunctions: because, although, when, if, after, since, unless. “Although the meeting ran long, the team reached a decision.” The dependent clause cannot stand alone — it needs the main clause to complete its meaning.

Varying between these three types is one of the clearest signals of writing maturity. A paragraph built entirely of simple sentences reads like a first-grade textbook. A paragraph of all complex sentences exhausts the reader. Professional English writing mixes all three.

台灣學習者常犯的英文句型錯誤 | Common Mistakes Taiwan Learners Make

Identifying your own pattern of errors is the fastest way to improve your English sentence accuracy.

Four error patterns appear repeatedly among Taiwanese English learners, and all four trace back to Chinese interference on English sentence structure.

Dropping the subject — Chinese permits subject-less sentences because context makes the meaning clear. English almost never does. “Is raining outside” is wrong; “It is raining outside” is required. Impersonal subjects like “it” and “there” have no Chinese equivalent, which makes them easy to forget.

Double subject — “My boss, he always emails late at night” copies a Chinese emphasis pattern that does not exist in English grammar. Pick one: either “My boss always emails late at night” or “He always emails late at night.” The redundancy reads as an error to any native speaker.

Adjective after linking verb — Learners write “This meal tastes deliciously” instead of “tastes delicious.” When an adjective follows a linking verb (S+V+C pattern), it must be an adjective, not an adverb. The complement describes the subject — subjects are nouns, and adverbs do not modify nouns.

Missing “be” verb in a clause — In Chinese, “be” is often implied. “She very smart” makes sense in Mandarin logic. In English, the linking verb is required: “She is very smart.” Missing be-verbs are among the most common errors in Taiwanese learners’ written work, particularly in relative clauses and subordinate clauses.

如何練習英文句型 | How to Practice the 5 Patterns

Passive recognition of these patterns in a textbook does almost nothing for writing fluency. The patterns need to become automatic, which only happens through active production. A practical daily drill: write two sentences in each of the five patterns using vocabulary from your current work or study. Ten sentences, five minutes. Within two weeks, the structures start appearing naturally in emails and conversation without conscious effort.

A second method is pattern-spotting. Take any English article — a news report, a company memo, a blog post — and label the clause structure of every sentence. It feels mechanical at first, but it forces conscious attention onto patterns you normally skim past. Understanding how passive voice restructures the S+V+O pattern becomes much clearer once you can confidently identify the active structure first.

Once the five basic patterns feel solid, extend them. A simple S+V+O sentence like “The manager reviewed the proposal” can grow into a complex sentence: “The manager reviewed the proposal because the client requested revisions.” The core S+V+O structure never moves — you are just adding context around it. This is also how relative clauses work — they extend a noun phrase inside any of the five patterns without changing the pattern itself.

For learners targeting professional English, patterns 4 and 5 deserve extra attention. Business writing relies heavily on verbs like give, show, send, make, keep, and consider — all of which anchor patterns 4 or 5. Getting those patterns automatic is what makes your English emails read like they were written by a fluent speaker. This precision in sentence building also connects naturally to how adjective order rules operate inside the noun phrases within these structures.

Video: English Sentence Structure Explained

This tutorial walks through the Subject-Verb-Object pattern with beginner-friendly examples — a strong starting point before working through all five patterns above.

출처

1. Purdue OWL: Sentence Types — Overview of simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence structures with examples.
2. Cambridge Grammar: Clause Types — Detailed reference on the five clause patterns recognized in academic English grammar.
3. British Council: Sentence Grammar — Authoritative grammar guide covering sentence structure for intermediate to advanced learners.