HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

Basic sentence patterns

in English and Vietnamese

Instructor : Nguyen Ngoc Vu

Student : Nguyen Thi Ai Thu

HCMC, 30/12/2009

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 Basic sentence patterns
in English and Vietnamese
A contrast analysis

I give to him some sweets. (Ti cho n my ci ko)

This sentence above extracted from a Vietnamese students translating

Vietnamese sentence into English. Why did this student make errors? In dealing with

learners errors, Lado states since the learner tends to transfer the habits of his native

language structure to the foreign language, we have here the major source of difficulty

or ease in learning the structure of a foreign language. Those structures that are similar

will be easy to learn because they will be transferred and may function satisfactorily in

the foreign language. Those structures that are different will be difficult because when

transferred they will not function satisfactorily in the foreign language and will therefore

have to be changed.

Vietnamese students usually make errors when translating Vietnamese sentence

into English because there are some differences between Vietnamese and English

grammar. This paper will focus on these differences and classify some error types that

students often meet.

In the first part of this paper, we will discuss types of the basic sentence patterns

in English and Vietnamese and make comparison between English and Vietnamese to

find out whether Vietnamese has the same basic sentence patterns or not.

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 The second part focuses on some errors types that students often meet and how

to conduct teaching translating Vietnamese sentence into English.

Before we explore the basic sentence patterns in English and Vietnamese, it is

important to understand definition of the sentence, element of the sentence and their

functions. Traditional grammar defines that a sentence is a group of words expressing a

complete thought or a group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with a

period. Vietnamese and English sentence have two main elements: subject and

predicate. Lynnm Berk defines that the grammatical subject of the sentence is often the

conversational subject, i.e, the person or thing that the sentence is about. The predicate

often makes a comment about that subject, i.e, it predicate . We often see that in a

simple sentence, a subject is a single structure, while a predicate can have internal

structure.

Subject predicate

The child slept

The child threw the ball

His mother considers him quite handsome

The predicate must contain a verb and can contain other structure such as a

direct object, an indirect object, various complement structures, and adverbs. In other

words, there are different elements with different functions in the sentence. According to

A university Grammar of English there are five elements in English sentence, including

subject(S), verb (V), object (O), complement(C), adjunct (A). According to Thnh phn

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cu Ting Vit, there are seven elements in Vietnamese sentence, including Subject-

ch ng(C), verb(V), object-b ng (B), theme-complement- khi ng( K), disjunct- tnh

thi ng(T), nh ng- complement (), trng ng - adverbial(Tr).

In general, English and Vietnamese have the same elements: subject, verb,

object, adjunct (adverbial) and complement. But in Vietnamese has two elements that

has not in English. They are theme complement (khi ng) and disjunct (tnh thi ng).

Every element may play different functions in sentences. Now we will step by step

analyze each elements function in detail.

Subject

In English, a subject is normally a noun phrase or any word classes that function

as a noun phrases and always precedes the verb in the sentence. In Vietnamese, the

subject has two types: the subject that co-occurs with verb and the subject that co-

occurs with copulas l. In first type, the subject can be a noun (Cu sp) or a noun that

show persons parts of body (Chn anh ta gy ri), pronoun (chng n i hc) and

subject-verb structure (Nh chy lm b thng hai ngi). In this type, the subject

always precedes the verb in sentence. The second type, the subject can be a noun ( Ba

l sinh vin), a verb (Hc tp l nhim v chnh) or a pronoun (H l cng nhn). In this

type, the subject can change its position.

In short, the subject in Vietnamese and English sentence has both similarities

and differences. Similarly, the subject is a noun, pronoun, noun phrases and always

precedes the verb in the sentence. However, in Vietnamese, the subject can co-occur

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with copulas l and can changes its position. In addition, subject in Vietnamese

sentence can be subject-verb structure

Verb

In English, verb is the main part of verb phrase and always combines with tense

in the sentence. Verb can be intransitive verb, transitive verb or state verb/state of being

verb. In Vietnamese, there are three types of verb. First, verb combines directly with the

subject that does not need copula in the affirmative and negative form (Ti c sch/Ti

khng c sch). Second, verb combines with the subject that has copula in the

affirmative and negative form (Ti l sinh vin/Ti khng phi l sinh vin). Third, in the

affirmative form verb combines directly with the subject, but in the negative form it

combines the subject that have copula (Anh y 30 tui/Anh y khng phi 30 tui).

The conclusion here is that the verb in Vietnamese and English sentence is

different. In my opinion, the verb in English sentence is more complex than in

Vietnamese because we must distinguish intransitive verb, transitive verb and state

verb. Verbs that can be followed by direct objects are considered transitive. The

intransitive verb is not followed by a direct object (or an indirect object) although it is

often followed by adverbs that express time or place.

Object

In English, object is a noun phrase or a prepositional phrase. Some sentences

have two objects, named direct (D.O) and indirect object (I.O) or sometimes object 1

and object 2. The indirect object normally refers to a person (more particularly the

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person who is recipient or who benefits from the action). In Vietnamese, Object can be

a noun or noun phrase (Th may may o), verb or verb phrase (C ti mun v/Sinh

vin thch chi tr chi in t) or a subject-verb structure (Thy gio hi vng mi hc

sinh u thnh t). Some Vietnamese sentences also have two objects: direct and

indirect object. To classify direct object and indirect object, we indicate whether the

object combines preposition or not.

C ta gi th(direct object) cho m( indirect object)

m is direct object because m combines with preposition cho

Paraphrase: c ta gi m mt bc th

In short, the object in Vietnamese and English sentence also both has similarities

and differences. It can be a noun or a noun phrase. However, in Vietnamese, the object

can be verb, verb phrase or a subject-verb structure.

Complement

In English, complement is a noun phrase or an adjective phrase (Jim has

become a qualified engineer). In Vietnamese, complement is second component in the

sentence. It can place before the sentence or between subject and predicate. (t

nhin cu ta ny nh b hc/ Cu ta t nhin ny ra nh b hc)

Adjunct

In English, adjunct is normally an optional element in clause structure and may

be freely add to any clause. It gives circumstantial information about the action or event

the clause refers to information about: time (when or how long), place (position or

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direction), manner, and cause. It can be an adverb phrase (John was playing as well as

he could), a prepositional phrase (John was playing with great skill) or a noun phrase

(John was going last week), finite verb clauses (John was playing although he was very

tired), non finite verb clauses (John was playing to win), verbless clauses (John was

playing, unaware of the danger), -ing participle( wishing to encourage him, they praised

Tom), -ed participle ( If urged by our Friends, we will stay)

Similarly, In Vietnamese, Adverbial refers to place (Cn n lnh c lan ra khp

thn hnh hn), time (Lc no cng vy, s gin d lm ngi ta m qung), purpose

(B m cho An mt t tin mua sch v), cause (V li ch mi nm trng cy),

manner (Bt cht cn ma p n), definite (Ti n anh ngay nu tri tnh ma).

Theme- complement (khi ng) and disjunct( tnh thi ng)

In English, there are no two elements above. In Vietnamese, theme

complement always precedes the sentence and expresses the topic that is indicated in

the sentence (Hai ngi , mt ngi l thy gio cn mt ngi l sinh vin).

Disjunct always places the end of the sentence and adds idea for the sentence (c

hc trng ny, h thch qu cn g).

To sum up, there are five elements in the English sentence. Vietnamese

sentence shares some similarities with English sentence but it has two elements that

English do not has. What about their basic sentence patterns? Are they different or

similar? We will continue to analyze the basic sentence patterns in English and

Vietnamese.

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 English

There are some examples of the basic patterns in the following story:

An unlucky thief

A man walked into a hotel, saw a nice coat, put it over his arm and walked out

again. Then he tried to hitch a life out of town, while he was waiting he put the coat on

his arm. At last a coach stopped and gave him a lift. It was carrying forty detectives on

their way home from a conference on crime. One of them had recently become a

detective inspector. He recognized the coat. It was his. He had left it in the hotel, and it

had gone missing. It seemed a good idea at the time, the man said. He thought himself

rather unlucky.

Type Basic pattern example

1 Subject Verb (SV) A coach stopped

2 Subject Verb Adjunct (SVA) The coat was over his arm

3 Subject Verb Complement (SVC) The detective became an inspector

4 Subject Verb Object (SVO) The detective arrested the thief

5 Subject Verb Object Adjunct (SVOA) He put the coat over his arm

6 Subject Verb Object (SVOO) The thief gave the inspector his coat

Subject Verb Object Complement

7 They called the inspector sir
(SVOC)

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 Look at the table above, we can see that there are seven basic sentence

patterns in English. Compare with English, basic sentence patterns in Vietnamese have

some differences.

Vietnamese

Type Basic patterns example

1 Subject Verb Object (SVO) Sinh vin c sch

2 Subject Object Verb (SOV) Anh ta thuc khng ht

3 Object Subject Verb (OSV) ru anh ta ung

4 Object Verb Subject (OVS) Nh ny mua l ti

5 Verb Subject Verb (VSV)(Not real)

6 Verb Object Subject (VOS) To ra ca ci l ngi lao ng

Subject Verb Object Adverbial

7 Sinh vin c sch phng c
(SVOA)

Subject Verb Object complement Sinh vin tng sch cho bn nhn ngy
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Adverbial (SVOCA) sinh nht

Theme-complement Subject Verb Khng bit ngh th no, cu y c

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Object Adverbial sch bng knh lp lp.

Theme-complement Subject Verb Ngh sao, hc sinh li vt rc ra ng

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Object Adverbial Disjunct nh th.

From the basic sentence patterns are mentioned above. We can see similarities

and differences of two languages. In English and Vietnamese, there are some the same

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basic patterns such as SVO, SVOA. However, in Vietnamese, verb and object can

precede the sentence. Subject can change its position in the sentence. Beside,

Vietnamese has two new elements: theme-complement and disjunct. So, in

Vietnamese, we can make a lot of the different basic patterns more than in English. As a

language teacher, we have to help students realize these similarities and differences. At

the same time of the comparing, we should give student some examples in both

languages to help student understand structure of the basic patterns clearly and use

them correctly.

As mentioned in the introduction, Vietnamese students often encounter with

problems of translating Vietnamese sentence into English because of differences

between two languages. In this paper, I only refer to two of them, which is omission

and repetition,

Omission

Students often omit the subject and the object when they translate Vietnamese

sentence into English.

Omission of subject

Ex: 1) N rt thng minh d cn nh tui

Incorrect: he is very intelligent though is young.

Correct: he is very intelligent though he is young.

Omission of object

Ex: 2) Ti xin tin nhng n khng cho

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 Incorrect: I asked for money, but he did not give me.

Correct: I asked for money, but he did not give it for me.

The subject he is omitted in the first sentence and the objectit is omitted in the

second. This reflects a very common feature of Vietnamese grammar, in which empty

pronouns exist in the most sentences and from the practice of word-by-word translation.

The cause of omitting subject and object in their translation can be:

do not master the basic sentence patterns in two languages

do not distinguish between intransitive verb and transitive verb.

do not distinguish between direct object and indirect object and their

positions.

Repetition

Similarly, students also often repeat the subject and the object when they

translate Vietnamese sentence into English.

Repetition of subject

Ex: N khc v xin tin

Incorrect: he cries and he asks me for money.

Correct: he cries and asks me for money.

Repetition of object

Ex: N vo v ti

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 Incorrect: he punched me and kicked me.

Correct: He punched and kicked me.

Vietnamese students often repeat subject and object in their translation because

of their habit of mentioning both topic and subject in one sentence and the practice of

word-by-word translation. They think that repeating subject or object can emphasize or

clarify the sentence.

As a teacher, what can we do to help student correct these errors?

Based on contrastive analysis between the basic sentence patterns in English and

Vietnamese and the cause of two common errors given above, I discuss some

implications of the study for language teaching and learning.

Firstly, it is necessary for a teacher to help students realize and master the

similarities and differences between the basic sentence patterns in Vietnamese and

English. The difficult patterns may require an explanation such as objects position, the

differences between direct object and indirect object, object and complement, and

between intransitive and transitive verb and how to use them in one sentence. Learners

must understand main elements and their functions in the sentence and the basic

patterns clearly to be able to translate Vietnamese sentence into English and vice versa

correctly

Secondly, with common errors, the teacher must introduce them to students and

ask students to focus on them instead of ignoring them. With omission errors, students

must be aware that in Vietnamese sentence is often dropped but not in English. With

repetition errors, students must understand why they are not repeated subject and

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object at these positions in the sentence. The teacher should give students the rule of

common errors. So that when they meet these errors, they can correct errors

themselves.

Finally, it is more important that students have many opportunities to practice.

The teacher must provide the method how to translate Vietnamese sentence into

English. For example, when translating Vietnamese sentence into English, there are

three steps:

Step 1: choose the basic sentence pattern

Step 2: choose modifiers

Step 3: use the rule of proximity and the rule parallelism (the teacher explains

concept of two rules and gives some examples)

Ex: Chnh ph chp thun n xy dng mt phi trng mi.

1. Basic sentence: Subject+Verb+Object

The government has approved the project

2. Modifier: xy mt phi trng mI -> To-group: to build a new airport

3. Proximity:

The government has approved the project to build a new airport.

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 Conclusion

In fact, the basic sentence patterns is one of the most important and basic

grammatical matters in English and Vietnamese. Students only can write or speak

English correctly when they master the basic sentence patterns. As analyzed above, the

basic sentence patterns in English and Vietnamese have some similarities and

differences. So, in my opinion, the best way to help students no make errors when

translating Vietnamese sentence into English, the teacher must be sure that student

recognize the similarities and differences in the basic sentence patterns of two

languages. In addition, the teacher must provide the method how to translate

Vietnamese sentence into English efficiently. As all we know, it is not easy for us to

translate from one language into another language. So, in order to get good results in

translation, not only is it teachers help, but also requires students a lot of efforts and

practice everyday.

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 References

Le Quang Thiem. (2004). Ngn ng hc I chiu. Ha Noi: Ha Noi national

University Publisher.

Lynm Berk. (1999). English syntax. London: Oxford university press.

Nguyen Thanh Luong. (2001). Phng php c bn dch Vit Anh v ng php.
Publisher of Dong Nai.

Nguyen Hoa Lac. (2000). An outline of Syntax. Publisher of Ho chi Minh city.

Diep Quang Ban. (1987). Ng Php Ting Vit Phn Cu. Ha Noi: publisher of
education.

John Easwood. (2001). English grammar Oxford. London: Oxford university

press.

Tran Van Dien. (1993). Correct your English. Young publisher.

Lado Robert. (1957). Linguistics Across Cultures. University of Michigan Press.

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