Sentence Patterns

Exclamation

You have some nerve!

Negative Expression

Dido and Aeneas’s love affair was not tragic, but pathetic.

Introductory Predicate Nominative

Knucklehead was his name.

Introductory Predicate Adjective

Happy is the lad whose heart is pure.

Non-sentence/Rhetorical Fragment

Perhaps.

Introductory Prepositional phrase(s)

In the selection of a beau, Susan used only two criteria.

Introductory Prepositional Phrase(s) with Inverted Sentence

In the midst of the swirling sea of dancers stood a solitary woman.

Question

Why question so obvious a point?

Introductory Infinitive Phrase as a modifier

To write, one must first think.

Introductory Infinitive Phrase as the subject

To complain constantly is a waste of time—mine and yours.

Introductory Participial Phrase

Peering down the blue steel barrel, Landon only sighed as he watched the young buck drink from Sandy Creek.

Introductory Absolute Phrase

Fingers racing, Irving typed his paper furiously.

Absolute phrase appearing elsewhere

Irving, his nerves frayed, grew ever more desperate to complete his paper as the sun peeked over the horizon.

Introductory Adverb Clause

Since we must write a paper, we would be stupid not to find an interesting topic.

Introductory Adjective

Asleep, the two-year-old boy looked like an angel.

Introductory Adverb

Nearby waited a sleek, black limousine.

Nominative by Pleonasm

Four ushers, a small person with enormous eyes, an alley cat—all of them were stranded in the cloakroom among abandoned wraps long after the concert had finished.

Compound Introductory Adverb Clauses

Although her topic fascinated her and even though she had researched it well, Emily had difficulty writing her research paper.

Compound Participial Phrases

Alternately humming to himself and whistling “Oh, Susanna,” Officer Shaw took down the flag and began to fold it.

Compound Introductory Infinitive Phrases as modifiers

To inform students about plagiarism and to discourage cheating on assignments, Dr. Summers wrote the LAMP Honor Code.

Compound Introductory Adjectives

Crisp and green, the bills lay in neat rows on the counter.

Compound Absolute Phrases

Eyes bleary with overuse and legs trembling with fatigue, Derrick turned in his research paper.

Simile

Mrs. Frucci's uncle used to say that going to church made him as nervous as a pregnant monkey on a rotten grapevine.

Metaphor (direct)

An infant is a blank page.

Metaphor (indirect)

Johnny soon found himself caught in Jane's web.

Personification

John tried to shut out the sound of the howling wind.

Oxymoron

As the condemned man stepped out of the courthouse, he heard only thunderous silence.

Paradox

Alexander Pope first accused literary critics of "damning with faint praise.”

Hyperbole

Rather than write her paper, Rachel thought she'd prefer to face a firing squad.

Synecdoche*

Let's go grab a bite.

Synecdoche

Using a part of something to represent the whole

Metonymy*

The White House responded to its critics yesterday.

Metonymy

Using something closely related to the actual object as a way of referring to the object itself

Reversal of a Cliché

“The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's on the list.”

Antithetical sentence

Write quickly and you will never write well; write well and you will soon write quickly.

Balanced sentence

The world is very old, and human beings are very young.

Cumulative/loose sentence

The women moved through the streets as winged messengers, twirling around each other in slow motion, peeking inside homes and watching the easy sleep of men and women.

Periodic sentence

In spite of our rubber coats, before we had gone a hundred yards through the wet grass and underbrush that covered the hillside, we were drenched.