five basic sentence patterns

[maoyueh]

I know that every sentence can be categorized as belonging to one of the following five basic sentence patterns: 1. S+Vi. 2. S+Vi.+S.C. 3. S+Vt.+O. 4. S+Vt.+I.O.+D.O. 5. S+Vt.+O.+O.C..

How should I categorize the passive sentence?
For example, "The motorcyclist was killed in the accident."

Grammar books and dictionaries say that in the above sentence, was is an auxiliary verb, and killed is the past participle of the transitive verb kill. Then this sentence, it seems to me, does not belong to any of the five basic sentence patterns. It really puzzles me.

My question is: Can I look upon was as a main verb/linking verb, and killed as the subject complement, and then classify the above sentence as belonging to pattern 2: S+Vi.+S.C.? Thank you very much.

[5jj]

If you are going to try to squeeze all sentences into five patterns, then you will have to accept that 'V' can be more than one word.

I work.
I am working
I have been working
I will have been working
He was killed
He has been killed
He will have been killed.

[5jj]

ps. So can S, O and C

pps. This site will give you a couple more patterns.