Parts of speech are put together to create sentence patterns in English. All of my elementary students know what I mean with a label S V O by now - subject verb object.
Basically, the eight parts of speech are as follows:
Noun (subject or object)
Pronoun (subject or object)
Adjective
Verb
Adverb
Conjunction
Preposition
Interjection
Six Sentence Patterns
Sentence Patterns #1 - Noun / Verb
The most basic sentence pattern is a noun followed by a verb. It's important to remember that only verbs that do not require objects are used in this sentence pattern.
Examples:
People work.
Frank eats.
This basic sentence pattern can be modified by adding a noun phrase, possessive adjective, as well as other elements. This is true for all the sentence patterns that follow.
Examples:
People work. -> Our employees work.
Frank eats. -> My dog Frank eats.
Sentence Patterns #2 - Noun / Verb / Noun
The next sentence pattern builds on the first pattern and is used with nouns that can take objects.
Examples:
John plays softball.
The boys are watching TV.
Sentence Patterns #3 - Noun / Verb / Adverb
The next sentence pattern builds on the first pattern by using an adverb to describe how an action is done.
Examples:
Thomas drives quickly.
Anna doesn't sleep deeply.
Sentence Patterns #4 - Noun / Linking Verb / Noun
This sentence pattern uses linking verbs to link one noun to another. Linking verbs are also known as equating verbs - verbs which equate one thing with another such as 'be', 'become', 'seem', etc.
Examples:
Jack is a student.
This seed will become an apple.
Sentence Patterns #5 - Noun / Linking Verb / Adjective
This sentence pattern is similar to sentence pattern #4, but uses linking verbs to link one noun to its description using an adjective.
Examples:
My computer is slow!
Her parents seem unhappy.
Sentence Patterns #6 - Noun / Verb / Noun / Noun
Sentence pattern #6 is used with verbs that take both direct and indirect objects.
Examples:
I bought Katherine a gift.
Jennifer showed Peter her car.