Basic Sentence Structure

Basic sentence structure simply means the basic order of the words in a sentence.

Ed	kisses	Mary.
S

"Ed" is the subject of the sentence. The subject usually comes first in the sentence.

Ed	kisses	Mary.
	V

The verb, in this case, "kisses," indicates the action of the sentence and it usually comes in second place.

Ed	kisses	Mary.
		O

And here’s who or what the action is happening to – the object, “Mary.”  It usually comes after the verb, in third place.

Mary	slaps	Ed.
S	V	O

The sentence structure in English tells us who is doing what to whom. In this sentence, Mary is the subject, "slaps" is the verb, and "Ed" is the object.