VOA日常语法2023--Grammar for a Gift-giving Season

Grammar for a Gift-giving Season

We are entering a major gift-giving season in the United States. People purchase goods and services for their loved ones, friends, coworkers, and others.

But how do we talk about giving gifts? How do we use subjects, verbs, and objects to describe gift giving?

Those questions will be the subject of today's Everyday Grammar.

Let's start with some important terms and ideas.

Elements

In a recent Everyday Grammar lesson, we explored questions about gifts – asking what others might want in terms of a gift.

In today's lesson, we will talk about statements we might make after we purchase the gift.

Before we continue with the lesson, we need to identify the key elements of a sentence.

The simplest way to divide a sentence is into two parts: the subject and the predicate.

The subject is generally a noun¹, noun phrase, or pronoun².

The predicate, on the other hand, says something about the subject. The predicate contains a verb, objects, indirect³ objects, and so on.

Now that we have our basic building blocks of language, we should explore how to put them together.

Putting elements together

We will start with the predicate. Why? Because the predicate is central to today's lesson.

The language we use in the predicate to describe a gift purchase often falls into a simple pattern: transitive verb + noun phrase 1+noun phrase 2.

A transitive verb is one that takes a direct object. A direct object is the receiver of the verb's action.

So, in the pattern we just learned⁴ about, we can say that the transitive verb takes a noun phrase that acts like the direct object.

Finally, we might have a second noun phrase that acts like the indirect object – the person who receives the direct object.

Please note that the direct object does not always appear directly next to the verb, as we will see.

Some examples will clarify⁵ this explanation.

Examples

When we talk about gift giving, we often use three transitive verbs: get, buy, and give.

The direct object is the gift. The indirect object is the person receiving the gift.

So, let's imagine we have a friend named Mary. We might say the following about Mary's gift-giving decision:

Mary got her son a book.

In our example, the subject is Mary. The predicate is "got her son a book."

The direct object is "a book." What did Mary get? She got a book. Who is going to receive the book? Her son. In this case, "her son" is the indirect object.

So, in the sentence "Mary got her son a book," we can say that the structure is subject + transitive verb + noun phrase 1 + noun phrase 2.

Here are two other examples. Let's use the transitive verbs "buy" and "give":

Jonathan bought his mother a sweater.

Felicia gave her friend a painting.

All of these examples are in their past forms. But we can also use these verbs in other forms as well.

Practice

Let's take some time to work with these ideas. Create a sentence using the following elements:

The subject is "My father."

The predicate consists of the verb "get," the noun phrase "a vase," and the noun phrase "my mother."

Pause the audio⁶ to consider your answer.

Here is one possible answer:

My father got my mother a vase.

The order of the sentence is subject + transitive verb + indirect object + direct object.

Closing thoughts

Today we explored one pattern we often use to describe gift giving. To be clear: we use other patterns as well.

One of these makes use of the prepositions⁷ "to" and "for." But that will have to be the subject of a future lesson.

Words in This Story

predicate – n. grammar: the part of a sentence that expresses what is said about the subject

pattern – n. the regular and repeated way in which something happens

phrase – n. a group of two or more words that express a single idea but do not usually form a complete sentence

vase – n. a container that is used for holding flowers or for decoration

1 noun   

n.名词

参考例句：

• What kind of noun is this?这是哪类名词？
• This word is a collective noun.这个词是个集体名词。

2 pronoun   

n.代词

参考例句：

• The relative pronoun is often dropped if it is the subject.关系代名词做受词时常被省略。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

3 indirect   

adj.间接的，转弯抹角的，非直接的

参考例句：

• What he said was very indirect.他的话很婉转。
• He gave only an indirect answer.他只作了间接的回答。

4 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

5 clarify   

v.澄清，阐明，使变得清晰；净化

参考例句：

• I am happy to clarify any points that are still unclear.我愿意说明任何仍然不清楚的地方。
• Can you clarify this long sentence?你能把这个长句子解释清楚吗？

6 audio   

n./adj.音频(响)(的)；声音(的)，听觉(的)

参考例句：

• Often,the meeting is recorded on audio or video media for later reference.通常这种会议会以视频或者音频形式记录下来，供以后查阅。
• You don't even have to pay for audio programs.你大可不必为自己听这些节目付费。

7 prepositions   

n.介词( preposition的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She lays a lot of emphasis on the usage of prepositions. 她把重点放在介词的使用上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Prepositions and conjunctions are particles. 介词和连词是小品词。 来自《简明英汉词典》