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Unit 2
Basic parts of a sentence (2)


GRAMMAR

1 Object and complement

The basic parts of a sentence include subject predicate object complement attribute and
adverbial As we have seen any sentence is made up of a subject and a predicate Predicates are
verbs Generally verbs can be put into two linking verbs and action verbs Both of them require a
word to complete their meaning We can call such a word complement The complement of a
linking verb is called a predicative or a subject complement which describes or renames the subject
For example
1 My favorite playwright is William Shakespeare
2 Mark Twain became a pilot on a steamboat
3 She felt uneasy in the crowd

The complement of an action verb is called an object Subject is the doer of the action and the
object is the receiver of the action
1 The old man caught a big fish
2 Her husband frequently beat her
3 My uncle eventually gave up smoking

Sometimes action verbs have two different objects direct object and indirect object Direct object
is the receiver of the action while an indirect object is the receiver of the direct object For instance：
Harry bought his son a new schoolbag

a new schoolbag is the receiver of the verb bought so it is the direct object his son is the
receiver of the direct object a new schoolbag and it is the indirect object Usually a preposition
to or for can be put in front of the indirect object For example
1 The old man left his daughter a large house
(The old man left a large house for his daughter)
2 Jim presented his girl friend a bunch of flowers
(Jim presented a bunch of flowers to his girl friend)

Different from the indirect object an object complement is used to complete the meaning of the
direct object In general it comes immediately after the direct object to identify or describe it Some
verbs usually have object complements such as appoint make consider call elect name think
choose find and prove and so on
1 The committee appointed Franklin a general manager
2 No one considered him an expert 2

3 The bunch of flowers made her girlfriend happy

Adverbials indicates time place manner and reasons They answer questions such as when
where how and why Adverbials can be adverbs prepositional phrases or adverbial clauses
As a rule a long adverbial are placed at the end of a sentence while short adverbials are flexible
to locate at the beginning in the middle or at the end may be all right For instance
1 The train will arrive next morning
2 He carefully drove his car to the station
3 Very soon she knew the full story

2．Basic sentence structures

There is a set of five basic sentence structures in English As we have learnt any complete
sentence will include some combination of a number of common elements subject predicate
predicative subject complement object object complement and adverbial Now let’s have a look
at the possible combination of these elements

Structure 1 Subject predicate (SP)
The SP sentence structure is made up of a noun pronoun or other nominal as the subject of the
sentence and an intransitive verb or verb phrase as the predicate
Time flies
Dead dog don’t bite
Money talks
The large yellow bus has stopped

Structure 2 Subject linking verb predicative subject complement (SIVC)
The words acting as a predicative may be a prepositional phrase to show the place of the subject
or a noun to identify or rename the subject or an adjective to indicate the state of the subject
Speech is the picture of mind
Every beginning is hard
The firemen are inside the building
The corn grows tall

Structure 3 SubjectPredicateObject (SPO)
The verb acting as a predicate in the SPO sentence structure is a transitive verb which may
take a direct object or both a direct object and an indirect object
Poverty tries friends
Many hands make light work
Nature taught the boy the meaning of fear
The Liberian handed me a Spanish dictionary

Structure 4 SubjectPredicateObjectAdverbial (SPOA)
The words acting as an adverbial can be adverbs prepositional phrases or adverbial clauses
providing information about time place manner and reasons 3

You never miss the water till the well runs dry
No man can make a good coat with bad cloth
My child finished his homework quickly

Structure 5 SubjectPredicateObjectObject Complement
(SPO OC)
Different from an indirect object which is the receiver of the direct object an object complement
is to complete the meaning of the direct object The words acting as an object complement can be
nouns adjectives or prepositional phrases
The villagers found their bedrooms ankledeep in water
The captain named his small boat Flying fish
The friendly mood makes us comfortable


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