Question

Which of the following sentences demonstrates a subject-verb-modifier pattern?

A. Because she'd spent hours preparing the meal, Shelly, a stickler for following recipes, finally served dinner.
B. Shelly served dinner after spending hours preparing the meal.
C. Shelly, after spending hours preparing the meal, served dinner.
D. After spending hours preparing the meal, Shelly served dinner.

Answer 1

The correct answer is actually B. Shelly served dinner after spending hours preparing the meal.
In this sentence, the subject is Shelly; the verb is served; and the modifier is everything else which modifies the sentence - the object dinner modifies the subject, and the adverbial phrase after spending hours preparing the meal modifies the verb. The other options do not demonstrate the subject-verb-modifier pattern: in A and D, the modifier comes first, and in C, it's subject-modifier-verb.