The syntactic structure that underlines the teaching of the basic sentence patterns is

• A. Semantics
• B. Prediction
• C. Transformation
• D. Grammar

Answer: (B)

Focusing on prediction means teaching sentence patterns by having students anticipate what comes next in a familiar skeleton, like Subject–Verb–Object. When students see that pattern, they actively forecast which word fills each slot and how the parts of the sentence relate to each other. This anticipation reinforces how the syntax organizes meaning and production, so learners can generate correct sentences even with new vocabulary. It’s not primarily about meaning (semantics), changing sentence form (transformation), or the whole rule system (grammar) in isolation; it’s about using the pattern as a guide and training the brain to predict the right order and function of each element, which is why this approach best captures the idea behind teaching basic sentence patterns.