Sentence Structure: Subject-Verb-Direct Object-Prepositional Object

A subject - verb - direct object - prepositional object sentence consists of a subject See the glossary definition , a complex transitive verb See the glossary definition, or a complex transitive See the glossary definition prepositional verb See the glossary definition , a direct object See the glossary definition and a prepositional object See the glossary definition .

The subject in the sentence above is a one-word noun phrase. The object is also a noun phrase and the prepositional object is prepositional phrase. Without more context we cannot know what "them" refers to.

Here are a few more examples (click and drag to stop, start and find the sentence you wish to examine):

You can view an analysis of some of the noun phrases in the above examples in the animations below (click on Subject to view each noun phrase).

In the above example the prepositional phrase is longer. It contains an embedded prepositional phrase "from Europe". Long prepositional phrases are not uncommon in academic writing.

Prepositional phrases contain a preposition and a complement (usually a noun phrase) In the above example the prepositional phrase contains a preposition and a nominal relative clause See the glossary definition .

Sometimes it is is possible to use alternative prepositional constructions. The above construction may be rephrased as below:

You can see further examples of this structure on the SVO_d O_p page and test yourself on the SVO_d O_p exercise page.