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The words and sets of words that make up a sentence have various types of functions. Among these functions we find those of subject, verb, direct object, indirect object and complement. The subject is the one who performs the action of the sentence or who is spoken of; the verb or verbal group indicates the action itself and the complements add information about the subject or about the object.
In English grammar there are different types of complements and the most common are the subject complement and the object complement.
subject complement
Let us consider the following sentences
- Bill is a policeman
- The camel smells awful
- A car was what she wanted for her birthday
In these examples we can see that the second part of each sentence completes the meaning of the first or adds some specific detail about the subject of the sentence. In these cases we are talking about object complements. It is observed that policeman adds information about Bill’s identity; the adjective awful is describing the camel and the phrase what she wanted gives us specific information about a car.
All of the above are examples of subject complements. They are usually accompanied by the verb to be and its conjugations ( am, are, was, have been) followed by an adjective or noun. For example:
- Love is a drug
- The weather is hot
- Those animals are very rare
object complement
In this case we find that the object can be accompanied by a complement that adds information or specific details about it. For example:
- Everyone thought him an idiot
- The accusation made me livid
- I find it difficult to believe
It can be seen that in the previous sentences the objects ( him, me, it) acquire more specific details thanks to their complements ( an idiot, livid, difficult to believe ). Like subject complements, these are usually adjectives or nouns.
Plugins and Attachments
We should not confuse subject and object complements with adjuncts. The complements are necessary to complete the logical sense of the sentence while the adjuncts add extra information that could be ignored without harming the logical sense of the sentence. For example:
He usually goes walking in the spring
In this sentence, the adjunct in the spring is not required to keep the sense since the sentence is completely logical without this segment.
References
- Tesol-direct. (2019) Complements in English grammar . Available at: https://www.tesol-direct.com/tesol-resources/english-grammar-guide/complements/
- Villamil, A. (2004). Objects and verbal complements in English and Spanish . contrastive study. Available at: https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/4983/3/Article_3_international_contrastive_linguistics_conference.pdf
