Complements for intermediate learners
In grammar, complements are words, phrases, or clauses that are essential to complete the meaning of a given expression. Here, we will study them thoroughly!
What Are Complements?
Types of Complements
Generally, we have two major kinds of complements. Take a look at the following list:
Now, take a look at the following examples:
Money is
I caught my friend
Now, let us examine each separately:
Subject Complements
Subject complements (also called predicative nominative and predicative adjectives) add necessary information to the subject of the clause. They can be nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. Please note that they always follow a linking verb. Study the following examples carefully:
Kim is a
As you can see, 'cartographer' is about the subject and if we remove it, the sentence will remain incomplete.
They became
The structure below shows the order of the different parts of a clause when we have a subject complement:
Subject + verb + subject complement
Subject complements can be classified into four subgroups:
- Predicative Nouns
- Predicative Pronouns
- Predicative Adjectives
- Predicative Prepositional Phrase
In this lesson, we are going to learn all about 'predicative nouns' and 'predicative adjectives':
Predicative Nouns
Predicative nouns rename or describe the subject of a clause. Please note that these predicative nouns always come after a linking verb. Let us take a look at some examples below:
Life becomes
Christianity is
Predicative Adjectives
When we want to modify the subject, we use predictive adjectives. Please note that these adjectives always come after the linking verbs. Take a look at the following examples:
Her novel was
That ice cream tastes
Object Complements
When we want to add information to the direct object, we use object complements. It can be a noun, a pronoun or an adjective. Take a look at the following examples:
He made me
I called her
The structure of the sentence when we have an object complement is as follows:
Subject + verb + direct object + object complement
Object complements can be nouns, adjectives, relative clauses, infinitives, and gerunds. Below, we are going to learn about some of them:
Nouns and Noun Phrases
There are some verbs with which we can have object complements. These verbs are called factitive. They indicate the result of the action. Below is a list of some common factitive verbs:
- Make
- Appoint
- Choose
- Select
- Judge
Now, check out the following examples:
She made her friends
The manager appointed her
Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
We can use adjectives or adjective phrases to describe or modify direct objects. Take a look at the following examples below:
She made me
As you can see, an adjective phrase has been used to modify the direct object.
The painter painted Anne's room
Infinitives and Infinitive Phrases
We can also have an infinitive or an infinitive phrase to modify an object complement. Study the following examples carefully:
I didn't ask him
She chose her sister
Tip!
The only difference between adjuncts and complements is that adjuncts are used when we want to add extra information to the sentence whereas, complements are a necessity. Compare the following examples:
I named the baby
Here, 'Sheila' is a complement because without it, the sentence will be incomplete.
I quit going to the gym
As you can see, if we remove 'long ago', the sentence is still meaningful.
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