The Grammatical Patterns feature offers a comprehensive guide to the structural patterns of verbs and is accompanied by a detailed yet easy-to-understand glossary of general grammatical terms that clarifies these concepts for both teachers and students. Future updates to the Grammatical Patterns feature will include pattern data relating to adjectives and nouns as well. Grammatical Patterns is a new subscriber feature. If you’re not currently a subscriber, take a look by signing up for a free 15-day trial.
Within individual dictionary entries, the grammatical patterns feature provides example sentences illustrating the particular patterns the entry word can be used in, and each example sentence is marked with the name of the pattern. Each pattern is linked to its description in the grammatical patterns guide, which can be accessed under Search Tools. The Grammatical Patterns guide provides a list of patterns that English verbs follow, and clicking on any of the patterns reveals verbs that follow each pattern, detailed descriptions of each of these patterns, and numerous usage examples.
The image below shows an example of how the grammatical patterns feature looks within a dictionary entry. The example shows the numerous patterns in which the verb “hope” can be used. The name of each pattern appears in blue after its example sentence. Don’t forget to turn on “Grammatical Patterns” in the display options in order to view the patterns.
Once again, clicking on the name of a pattern, such as verb + (that) + clause, will take you directly to information about that pattern in the guide. Each pattern description identifies its parts, provides additional example sentences, and lists other verbs following the pattern.
Grammatical Patterns Glossary
The Grammatical Patterns Glossary carefully defines all the grammatical terms used in the descriptions of patterns. Some topics covered include individual parts of speech, sentence components (e.g., “subject,” “object,” “clause”), and verb forms (e.g., “infinitive,” “participle”).
The Glossary can also be used as a stand-alone guide by those interested in refining their understanding or teaching of grammatical terminology. Clicking on any highlighted term in the glossary list brings up a detailed explanation.
The Grammatical Patterns feature demonstrates how specific words operate in a sentence and clarifies the ways in which English generally constructs sentences.
Marking of grammatical patterns in entries is a subscriber feature. Subscribing also gives you access to the Word Parts and Word Combinations features, as well as Spanish and Chinese support within entries. You can review all these features with a free 15-day trial. If you’d like information on subscription, click here.
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