Despite all the creativity and variety you see in writing, there are really just five basic structures for single-clause sentences.

1. Subject plus verb: Jason laughed.

2. Subject plus transitive verb plus direct object: Horses eat oats.

3: Subject plus transitive verb plus indirect object plus direct object: Sarah sent Joe a letter.

4: Subject plus copular verb plus complement of the copular verb: Harry is mean.

5: Subject plus transitive verb plus direct object plus object complement: The CEO made Ron treasurer.

Here's a closer look at how these five arrangements create infinite opportunities for expression.

The post The Five Basic Sentence Structures first appeared on Grammar Underground with June Casagrande.